— 


he  otar  reopie 

Gayldrd  Johnson 


GUIPT  ©F 

T? .     ' Pr»fl  ft  -.r   Gi*a v/.f  or d 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •   BOSTON   •   CHICAGO    •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON    •  BOMBAY   •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


BY 

GAYLORD  JOHNSON 

n 


WITH  DRAWINGS   ON  SAND  AND  BLACKBOARD 

BY   "UNCLE   HENRY  AND    THE  SOCIETY 

OF  STAR-GAZERS" 


"  Why  did  not  somebody  teach  me  the  constellations,  and 
make  me  at  home  in  the  starry  heavens,  which  are  always 
overhead  and  which  I  don't  half  know  to  this  day?  " 

—Thomas  Carlyle. 


fork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1921 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1921 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  June,  1921. 

ASTRONOMY 


0  ^ 


TO 
BABY  ANNE 


M298739 


WHAT  HAPPENED  IN  STARLAND 

PAGE 

FIRST  EVENING — 

In  which  the  Society  of  Star  Gazers  is  formed  and  dis- 
covers Two  Bears,  one  with  a  stretched  tail 1 

SECOND  EVENING — 

The  Herdsman's  Dogs  chase  Ursa  Major  and  the  terrible 
Dragon  wriggles  away  in  fright 12 

THIRD  EVENING — 

Uncle  Henry's  magic  turns  the  Lyre  into  a  Ukelele, 
and  the  Archer's  arrow  misses  the  Swan  and  hits  the 
Scorpion , 24 

FOURTH  EVENING — 

The  Virgin  is  too  busy  feeding  her  Sky  Poultry,  so 
Cassiopeia  gets  the  Ukelele  to  play 31 

FIFTH  EVENING — 

In  which  a  Dolphin  with  an  ear  for  music  saves  a 
Poet's  life — and  Uncle  Henry  puts  two  birds  in  one 
poem 41 

FIRST  WINTER  EVENING — 

The  "Society"  learns  why  Orion  needs  a  club  to  keep 
Frisky  Taurus  in  order,  and  why  we  say  "By  Jimini! " 
when  we're  excited 52 

SECOND  WINTER  EVENING — 

In  which  the  dogs  of  Orion  and  Gemini  follow  their 
masters,  Pegasus  escapes  as  usual,  and  Andromeda 


viii       WHAT  HAPPENED  IN  STARLAND 

PAGE 

gets  a  nice  soft  bed  of  hay  in  place  of  her  hard  old 
rock 61 

THIRD  WINTER  EVENING — 

The  Sky  clouded  over,  but  Peter  found  the  Star  People 
hiding  in  the  Almanac — Paul  found  that  his  head  was 
the  World — and  the  "Society"  found  out  about  the 
Swastika  and  the  Zodiac,  and  how  you  tell  when  a 
Dipper  is  a  Plough  and  when  it's  a  Wagon 78 

FOURTH  WINTER  EVENING — 

In  which  the  "Society"  meets  the  last  of  the  Star 
People  and  the  beginning  of  Astronomy — and  Betty 
proposes  a  "Note"  of  thanks 99 


TO  HELP  YOU  FIND 
THE  STAR  PEOPLE  IN   THE  SKY 

Whenever  Uncle  Henry  draws  a  line  to  point  out  one  of  the  star 
people  you  will  find  a  figure,  close  to  what  he  says,  like  this:  (10). 

Find  the  same  figure  on  one  of  the  maps  inside  the  front  or  back 
cover,  and  you  will  see  the  line  that  Uncle  Henry  drew — and  find 
the  star  person  or  animal  easily  in  the  sky. 

Numbers  1  to  17  can  be  located  on  the  front  cover  maps.  Numbers 
18  to  32  can  be  found  on  the  maps  inside  the  back  cover. 

To  Use  the  Maps 

Face  South  and  hold  the  map  for  the  proper  season  over  your 
head — with  the  top  of  the  book  toward  the  West  and  the  bottom 
toward  the  East.  You  will  then  see  the  Star  People  in  the  same 
places  they  appear  in  the  sky. 

The  maps  are  drawn  for  9  o'clock  on  April  1st,  July  1st,  October 
1st,  and  January  1st,  but  they  will  be  found  serviceable  in  the 
preceding  and  following  month.  When  necessary  consult  the  maps 
for  the  season  coming  before  or  after. 


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THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


THE   STAR  PEOPLE 

FIRST  EVENING 

IN  WHICH  THE  SOCIETY  OF  STAR-GAZERS  IS  FORMED 
AND  DISCOVERS  TWO  BEARS — ONE  WITH  A 
STRETCHED  TAIL 

UNCLE  HENRY  sat  on  the  porch  of  "Seven  Oaks" 
Cottage,  watching  the  new  moon  sink  into  the  woods 
across  Sand  Lake. 

The  ripples  of  the  motor-boat  that  had  carried 
"Sister"  and  "The  Children's  Father"  away  from 
the  dock  had  gone  from  the  glassy  water.  Over 
across  the  lake,  at  Pentecost  station,  they  would 
catch  the  ten  o'clock  train,  to  be  gone  a  week. 

Uncle  Henry  had  urged  "Sister"  to  go.  He  had 
said  he  was  perfectly  sure  of  being  able  to  look  after 
Peter  and  Paul  and  Betty  for  just  seven  days,  but 
now  that  "Sister"  was  really  gone  Uncle  Henry  felt 
the  size  of  the  task  he  had  undertaken. 

Of  course  he  wasn't  alone.  There  was  big,  whole- 
some Katy,  the  maid.  "Competent  Katy,"  he  had 
at  once  named  her  to  himself  on  his  arrival  two  weeks 
before.  The  sleeping,  eating,  and  dressing  of  twin 
ten-year-old  boys  and  a  seven-year-old  girl  would 
go  on  as  usual  without  Uncle  Henry's  assistance. 

In  the  daytime  he  planned  to  take  them  fishing, 
berry-picking,  sailing,  and  bathing.  Target-practice 


2  THE    STAR    PEOPLE 

with  Peter  and  Paul's  air-rifle  would  help,  too,  and 
there  would  be  walks  in  the  woods,  and  up  to 
Brighton's  farm  house  for  the  milk  every  evening. 

But  between  supper  and  bed  was  a  gap  that  Uncle 
Henry  thought  might  be  hard  to  fill.  He  must  think 
of  some  games.  He  didn't  want  to  be  a  poor  com- 
panion for  his  adored  niece  and  nephews  for  even 
an  hour  of  the  time. 

Uncle  Henry  blew  a  cloud  from  his  pipe  and 
watched  it  eddy  slowly  away,  filtering  through  the 
leaves  of  the  oak-branches  at  the  side  of  the  porch. 
Then  he  looked  up  to  the  vaporous  band  of  the 
milky  way.  Stars  hung  in  it,  sparkling.  It  was  like 
a  chiffon  streamer  with  tiny  diamond  spangles — or 
a  cloud  of  smoke,  blown,  with  sparks,  from  the  pipe 
of  Pan. 

You  will  see  right  away  that  Uncle  Henry  was  a 
poet,  even  if  Pan's  pipe  wasn't  the  smoking  kind. 
It  might  have  been,  as  easy  as  not.  Uncle  Henry 
was  wondering  whether  this  last  fancy  might  be 
made  into  a  poem  for  his  college  paper,  when  the 
children's  voices  floated  up  from  the  beach.  They 
were  sitting  on  the  smooth  sand  and  singing  in  unison, 

"Star  bright,  star-light— 
Many's  the  star  I  see  tonight. 
Star  bright,  star-light — 
Tell  me,  is  it  true? 

I  wish  I  may,  I  wish  I  might 
Get  the  wish  I  wish  tonight — 
Star  bright,  star-light, 
Tell  me,  is  it  true?" 


FIRST   EVENING  3 

Uncle  Henry  took  his  feet  off  the  porch-railing 
and  allowed  his  chair  to  use  all  of  its  feet  again. 
Then  he  leaned  out  by  a  post  and  looked  straight 
up  into  the  blue-black  vault  of  a  moonless  July 
night  sky.  The  stars  were  beautifully  clear. 

Evidently  Peter,  Paul,  and  Betty  were  singing 
praise  to  the  fact.  They  had  clapped  enthusiastically 
for  themselves,  and  were  now  beginning  the  encore — 
a  repetition  of  "Star  bright,  star-light." 

Uncle  Henry's  face  had  become  thoughtful,  and 
now  he  stepped  down  from  the  porch,  and  strolled 
down  the  boards  to  the  dock.  There  he  stood  craning 
his  neck  backward  and  looking  up,  until  the  children 
had  once  more  finished  the  verse,  laughing  and 
clapping.  Evidently  the  applause  for  themselves  was 
not  enough  this  time,  for  there  was  no  encore. 

Peter,  his  eye  on  Uncle  Henry,  flopped  down  on 
his  back  and  began  gazing  upward,  too.  In  a  mo- 
ment he  called, 

"Uncle  Hen?" 

"Yes,  Pete,"  from  the  dock,  where  Uncle  Henry 
was  star-gazing  in  the  opposite  direction. 

"Why  do  they  call  'the  big  dipper'  the  'great 
bear' — and  is  there  any  'little  dipper'?  Betty  says 
there  isn't,  'cause  she  never  saw  it." 

Uncle  Henry  stepped  off  the  dock  upon  the  smooth 
sand,  kneeled  down,  and  without  answering  began 
collecting  little  smooth  pebbles. 

Peter  sat  up  and  asked  in  surprise, 

"Don't  you  know,  Uncle  Hen?" 

Surely  this  genius,  who  could  make  new  kinds  of 


4  THE    STAR    PEOPLE 

kites,  and  willow-whistles  that  "worked  fine,"  was 
not  going  to  fail  now.  The  other  children  turned 
to  him,  expectant  too.  Betty  herself  was  willing  to 
be  proved  wrong  about  the  existence  of  the  "little 
dipper,"  rather  than  admit  a  limit  to  Uncle  Henry's 
wisdom. 

"Let's  make  a  nice,  smooth  place  on  the  sand," 
said  Uncle  Henry,  his  hands  now  full  of  those  myste- 
rious pebbles.  These  he  put  into  his  pocket  and  be- 
gan, on  all  fours,  to  smooth  sand  industriously. 

"Come  on,  youngsters,"  he  invited,  "and  I'll  let 
you  settle  the  questions  yourselves.  We'll  make  a 
game  of  it,"  he  added. 

The  trio  breathed  easier.  Uncle  Henry  did  know, 
and  was  going  to  tell — in  a  new,  interesting  way. 
Three  pairs  of  hands  started  smoothing  sand,  with 
some  waste  of  energy,  but  with  rapid  results. 

"Now,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  squatting  down  before 
the  leveled  place,  and  pouring  out  the  pebbles  in  a 
little  pile,  "how  many  stones  do  you  need  to  make 
the  dipper,  Pete?  We'll  draw  it  on  the  sand,  with 
pebbles  for  stars." 

Three  necks  craned  upward  in  unison,  and  the 
two  boys'  voices  answered,  almost  together, 

"Seven." 

Betty  gazed  a  moment  longer,  and  said, 

"Eight." 

Uncle  Henry  looked  interested. 

"Where  do  you  see  the  eighth,  Betty?"  he  asked. 

"Right  close  where  the  handle  bends,"  announced 
Betty. 


FIRST    EVENING 


"Correct,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "that  shows  you 
have  good  eyes.  The  Arabs  used  to  call  that  little 
star  '  the  proof, '  because  it  is  a  test  of  good  eyesight 
to  see  it.  The  star  at  the  bend  of  the  handle  is  also 
called  'the  horse,'  and  that  faint  little  star  over  it 
'the  rider.'  You  can  make  the  dipper  itself  with 
seven  pebbles,  though.  Go  ahead  and  do  it,  Peter," 
Uncle  Henry  finished,  "and  take  good-sized  stones, 
to  show  that  they're  bright  stars." 

When  Peter  had  finished,  the  smooth  patch  of 
sand  looked  like  this  in  the  light  from  Uncle  Henry's 
pocket  electric  torch. 


Betty  insisted  upon  adding  a  tiny  stone  above 
"the  horse,"  to  represent  her  discovery,  "the  rider." 

"Now,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  looking  upward,  "I'll 
help  you  this  much  in  finding  all  of  'the  great  bear.' 
The  handle  of  the  dipper  is  his  tail.  Everybody  try 
to  find  the  rest  of  him.  Put  down  a  pebble  in  the 
right  spot  for  every  star;  big  ones  for  bright  ones, 
and  little  stones  for  faint  ones." 

"Ooh,"  interrupted  Betty,  "I  got  his  nose!" 

Here  is  where  Betty  put  it. 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


" — and  his  shoulders!"  she  added  in  a  moment, 
putting  them  in  with  small  pebbles. 

"I  got  his  front  leg!"  announced  Paul  excitedly, 
adding  three  pebbles  rapidly. 

Then  the  bear  looked  like  this. 


It  was  Peter  who  contributed  his  hind  legs  and 
his  "skeleton,"  made  of  finger-drawn  lines  in  the 
sand.  Like  this. 


FIRST    EVENING 


And  when  Uncle  Henry  had  drawn  an  outline  in 
the  sand  with  his  finger,  the  "great  bear"  was  done 
to  everybody's  satisfaction. 


8  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

While  they  were  all  looking  at  it,  Uncle  Henry 
recited, 

"  Ursa  Major  's  Latin — 
And  it  means,  'the  greater  bear.' 
Ursa  's  '  bear,'  and  Major  's  '  bigger,' 
If  you  want  to  see  his  'figger,' 
At  the  dipper's  handle  stare — 
That's  the  tail  of  Ursa  Major. 
Find  his  shoulders,  nose,  and  toes — 
Who  first  named  him,  no  one  knows." 

"Did  you  say,  'Noah ' — or  'no  one,'  Uncle  Henry?" 
asked  Betty. 

"I  said,  'no  one,'  but  have  it  'Noah'  if  you  like," 
said  Uncle  Henry.  "Maybe  Noah  named  him.  He 
was  interested  in  animals,  and  Adam  ought  not  to 
have  the  only  right  to  name  them." 

"Now  let's  find  the  little  dipper!"  urged  Peter, 
anxious  for  a  victory  over  Betty's  doubts  of  its 
existence. 

"When  we  find  it,"  announced  Uncle  Henry 
solemnly,  "it  won't  be  a  dipper  at  all;  it  will  be  an- 
other bear — a  little  bear.  You  know  that  Noah  had 
two  of  everything  in  his  ark." 

"I  told  you  there  wasn't  any  little  dipper!"  shrilled 
Betty  at  Peter. 

"Uncle  Henry  said  we'd  find  it,  though,"  coun- 
tered Peter,  looking  hopefully  at  the  oracle. 

"So  we  will,"  laughed  Uncle  Henry,  "the  little 
dipper  and  the  little  bear  are  the  same  thing!" 

"Come  on!"  urged  Paul,  "how  do  we  start,  Uncle 
Henry?" 


FIRST    EVENING 


Uncle  Henry  got  up  on  his  knees  and  drew  a  long 
straight  line  in  the  sand  with  his  forefinger.  (1)  It 
went  up  through  both  stars  in  the  middle  of  the  great 
bear's  body,  and  a  long  way  beyond.  Over  three 
times  the  distance  between  the  two  stars  the  line 
went  beyond  them.  Uncle  Henry  put  down  a  fair- 
sized  pebble  at  the  end. 

"There,"  he  said,  "is  the  tip  of  the  little  bear's 
tail.  Go  ahead  and  find  him;  but  I  warn  you — it's 
a  very  long  tail,  and  you'll  have  to  imagine  his  legs 
and  nose." 

There  was  a  moment's  silence.    Then  Peter  said, 

"I  can't  see  any  bear,  but  I  can  make  out  a  dip- 
per." 

"Make  it,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 


10 


THE   STAR  PEOPLE 


When  Peter  finished  putting  down  little  pebbles 
the  little  dipper  was  very  plain,  just  above  the  great 
bear's  back. 

Then  Uncle  Henry  solemnly  drew  an  outline 
around  the  seven  small  pebbles. 


"Oooh,  what  a  funny  bear!"  laughed  Betty,  when 
Uncle  Henry's  finger  had  finished.  "His  tail  is  so 
long!" 

"Bears  always  have  short  tails,"  said  Peter, 
looking  reproachfully  at  Uncle  Henry,  as  if  that 
person  was  responsible.  There  was,  however,  a  note 
of  expectancy  in  Peter's  voice.  He  expected  a 
satisfactory  explanation  from  Uncle  Henry. 

"This  bear  once  had  as  short  a  tail  as  any  other 
bear,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  quite  undisturbed. 

"Who  stretched  it?"  inquired  Paul  breathlessly. 

"You  will  note,"  began  Uncle  Henry,  "that  the 


FIRST    EVENING  11 

tip  of  the  little  bear's  tail  is  a  star  that  is  right  at  the 
top  of  the  North  Pole.  You  can't  see  the  pole,  but 
it's  there — and  long  ago  somebody  tied  the  tip  of 
the  little  bear's  tail  fast  to  it.  As  the  earth  turned 
around  year  after  year,  and  the  pole  turned  with  it, 
the  little  bear  was  swung  round  and  round  by  his 
tail.  That  would  make  anybody's  tail  stretch, 
wouldn't  it?" 

There  was  a  moment's  quiet.  Then  Peter  said 
roguishly, 

"You  can't  kid  us  into  believing  that,  Uncle  Hen — 
but  we'll  sure  remember  it." 

All  Uncle  Henry  said  was, 

"Your  mother  doesn't  like  you  to  talk  slang, 
Peter." 

Uncle  Henry  had  scored  again,  and  knew  it. 

"To-morrow  night  we'll  find  the  dragon,  and  the 
man  who  drives  the  great  bear  around  the  pole,  and 
his  dogs,  and  maybe  the  lions  and  the  swan,"  prom- 
ised Uncle  Henry,  as  he  looked  at  his  watch  and 
stood  up. 

"Oooh,  great!"  cried  the  trio  together. 

"We'll  have  a  reg'lar  Noah's  Ark  on  that  sand, 
won't  we?"  said  Betty. 

"We'll  call  it  'Noah's  Ark  in  the  Sky,'  "  Uncle 
Henry  agreed,  as  the  children  followed  him  up  the 
walk  to  Seven  Oaks  Cottage. 


SECOND  EVENING 

THE   HERDSMAN'S   DOGS   CHASE   URSA   MAJOR — AND 
THE  TERRIBLE  DRAGON  WRIGGLES  AWAY  IN  FRIGHT 

THE  next  evening  Peter,  Paul,  and  Betty  were  all 
down  on  the  beach  as  soon  as  supper  was  over. 

Peter  and  Paul  had  that  morning  made  a  fence  of 
laths  around  the  sand  drawings  of  the  two  bears- 
big,  and  little,  so  that  "Rags,"  their  Airedale  puppy, 
could  not  spoil  them. 

Now  that  "Rags"  was  asleep  under  the  cottage, 
Peter  and  Paul  removed  the  fence  and  smoothed 
the  sand  carefully  for  several  yards  around  the 
bears,  while  Betty  collected  a  quite  unnecessarily 
large  number  of  pebbles  to  represent  the  stars  that 
would  be  found,  with  Uncle  Henry's  help,  when  the 
twilight  faded. 

When  all  this  was  done  the  trio  sat  down  beside 
the  smoothed  space  and  called  to  Uncle  Henry,  on 
the  porch,  that  one  star  was  already  out  and  he  had 
better  hurry. 

"I'll  come  when  you  can  see  Ursa  Major's  tail," 
called  back  Uncle  Henry,  and  the  children  had  to 
wait,  although  they  shrilly  announced  each  new  star 
that  glowed  into  sight  in  the  darkening  sky,  and  re- 
peatedly urged  Uncle  Henry  to  "come  on  and  begin !" 

The  seven  stars  of  the  big  dipper  were  all  plainly 

12 


SECOND    EVENING 


13 


visible  when  Uncle  Henry  came  down  the  board 
walk  and  sat  cross-legged  on  the  sand. 

The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  extend  the  line 
joining  the  last  two  pebbles  in  the  great  bear's  tail 
until  it  was  about  five  times  as  long  as  before,  and 
curved  slightly  downward  as  it  went.  (2) 

"Now,  Betty,"  he  said,  "give  me  a  pebble — a 
good  big  one.  This  is  a  bright  star  we'll  begin  with; 
see  if  you  can  find  it,"  and  Uncle  Henry  put  down 
the  pebble  at  the  end  of  the  line,  like  this. 


The  three  exclaimed,  "I  see  it!"  almost  together. 

"All  right,  then,  we'll  find  ' Bootes*  the  herdsman 
who  drives  Ursa  Major  round  the  pole,"  said  Uncle 
Henry.  "He  has  two  dogs  to  help  him  besides. 
We'll  find  them  too." 

The  children  gazed  upward  for  some  time,  in- 
tently silent. 


14 


THE   STAR  PEOPLE 


"I  guess,"  observed  Betty  finally,  "that  you'll 
have  to  tell  us  whether  that  big  star  is  the  bear- 
driver's  head — or  one  of  his  *  booties,'  Uncle  Henry." 

A  duet  of  groans  from  Peter  and  Paul  followed 
this  example  of  the  lowest  form  of  wit. 

"I  can't  see  anything  that  looks  like  a  man  the 
least  bit,"  she  went  on,  oblivious  of  the  groans, 
"  but  I  can  see  a  kite,  with  that  big  star  at  the 
place  where  the  tail  would  be  fastened  on." 

"Fine,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "Make  the  kite  then, 
Betty — and  then  we'll  find  the  herdsman  after  we've 
flown  the  kite  a  while.  That's  the  wonderful  thing 
about  Starland.  If  you  get  tired  of  one  of  the 
beasts  or  people  in  it — presto !  You  can  change  him 
into  anything  he  looks  like  to  you.  Bootes  is  really 
much  more  like  a  kite  than  a  man,  so  let's  make  the 
kite.  Put  the  pebbles  down,  Betty." 

Betty  did,  and  they  looked  like  this. 


>.*••.  ".•.'•isA 


SECOND    EVENING 


15 


"That  was  easy!"  exclaimed  Peter. 

"Never  you  mind,  Mr.  Peter!"  Betty  burst  out 
warmly,  "I  found  it  first,  anyhow!" 

"We'll  let  Peter  find  the  bear-driver's  head,"  said 
Uncle  Henry  judicially. 

Peter  promptly  picked  the  big  star  at  the  tail-end 
of  the  kite. 

"You're  wrong,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "but  I  don't 
blame  you.  Arcturus  is  much  too  bright  and  beauti- 
ful to  be  only  a  big,  bright  button  on  the  lower  edge 
of  Bootes"  shepherd's  kilt — but  that  is  all  it  is.  The 
star  at  the  top  end  of  the  kite  is  his  head,  and  the 
two  stars  at  the  ends  of  the  cross-stick  of  the  kite  are 
his  shoulders.  About  halfway  from  them  to  Arc- 
turus you  can  find  the  belt  of  his  kilt,  and " 

"Oh,  I  see  his  legs!"  interrupted  Paul.  "He's 
running  after  the  big  bear." 

"Put  them  in,  Paul,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 

Paul  did,  and  the  figure  of  Bootes  grew  to  look  like 
this. 


16  THE   STAR  PEOPLE 

"But  he  hasn't  any  arms!"  said  Peter. 

"Yes,  he  has,"  explained  Uncle  Henry,  "his  left 
one  is  up  in  the  air,  and  his  right  one  holds  a  shep- 
herd's crook  upon  his  right  shoulder.  Like  this." 

Uncle  Henry  added  pebbles  and  lines  until  Bootes 
was  finished. 


m 


ES^M:V;$lS8@K£ggS» 

lill^iyi^iili'iiS 


"What  awful  short  legs  he  has!"  criticised  Betty, 

"That  must  be  why  he's  never  caught  the  great 
bear,"  smiled  Uncle  Henry. 

"What's  he  shaking  his  fist  for?"  inquired  Paul, 
pointing  to  the  herdsman's  left  hand.  "Is  he  so  mad 
because  he  can't  catch  Ursa  Major?" 

Uncle  Henry  did  not  reply,  but  drew  two  long 
lines  from  the  uplifted  hand  downward  to  a  point 
just  below  the  end  of  the  big  bear's  tail. 


SECOND    EVENING 


17 


"Oh,  I  know!"  piped  Betty,  and  throwing  herself 
on  her  back,  she  began  to  star-gaze  industriously. 

Peter  and  Paul  looked  at  each  other  inquiringly. 

"The  dogs!"  said  Peter.  "Betty's  looking  for 
them.  They're  on  leash  of  course.  Those  lines  are 
the  leashes." 

Uncle  Henry  smiled  his  pleasure. 

"The  hunting  dogs — or,  as  you  would  say  it  in 
Latin,  Canes  Venatici,  are  largely  imaginary.  There 
are  six  stars — three  in  each  dog,  and  all  faint  except 
one,  named  Cor  Caroli" 

"I  see  the  bright  one!"  said  Peter,  and  put  down 
a  fair-sized  pebble  to  represent  it.  When  the 
children  had  found  the  five  other  faint  stars  and 
Uncle  Henry  had  finished  drawing  the  dogs,  Bootes 
and  his  hunting  hounds,  Asterion  and  Chara,  looked 
like  this. 


18  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"Why  do  they  call  the  bright  star  at  the  tail  of 
Char  a,  Cor  Caroli,  Uncle  Henry?"  asked  Paul. 

"It  is  Latin  for  'heart  of  Charles,'"  said  Uncle 
Henry,  "and  the  Charles  they  mean  is  Charles  the 
Second  of  England,  but  don't  ask  me  why,  for  I 
don't  know.  Perhaps  the  dog  Chara  ran  away  with 
Cor  Caroli.  I  understand  that  Charles  the  Second 
lost  his  heart  pretty  often,  and  perhaps  one  time  he 
didn't  get  it  back.  Beware,  Paul!  I  am  Father 
William  out  of  Alice  in  Wonderland;  'you  have 
asked  me  three  questions  and  that  is  enough. ' ' 

"Are  you  going  to  make  a  poem  for  us  to-night , 
too?"  inquired  Betty  hopefully. 

"Let  me  see,"  said  Uncle  Henry  thoughtfully. 
"Great  bear,  Bootes,  pronounced  Bo-5-tees,  and  two 
dogs — they  ought  to  make  some  kind  of  a  poem. 
How's  this?  I'll  let  you  name  it  after  you've  heard 
it." 

"The  big  bear  runs,  the  herdsman  runs, 
His  dogs,  they  both  are  chasing. 

While  Ursa  growls,  Bootes  howls, 
His  dogs,  they  both  are  barking. 

For  Ursa  stole  Bootes'  bowl 
Of  hot  milk,  set  acooling. 

His  mouth  burns  yet,  the  bowl's  upset, 
The  milky  way  is  streaming." 

"The  milky  way  to  catch  a  bear,"  suggested  Paul, 
as  a  name  for  the  poem. 


SECOND    EVENING  19 

"Who  spilt  the  milk?"  volunteered  Peter. 

"The  herdsman  hasn't  ever  caught  Ursa  Major" 
said  Betty  reflectively,  "so  he's  wasting  his  time 
chasing  him.  *  Don't  cry  over  spilt  milk'  would  be 
a  good  title,  I  think.  He  ought  to  be  tending  his 
silly  sheep,  if  he  has  any." 

"I've  got  it!"  exclaimed  Peter,  'Ursa  was  a  big 
bear;  Ursa  was  a  thief.'  Like  'Taffy  the  Welshman,' 
you  know." 

Since  no  one  else  had  a  better  title,  the  "Society 
of  Star-Gazers,"  as  Paul  had  named  it,  let  it  go  at 
that,  and  allowed  Bootes  to  persist  in  his  pursuit  of 
the  great  bear  for  his  ancient  mischief. 

"I  thought  you  were  going  to  show  us  the  lions 
to-night,  Uncle  Hen,"  said  Peter. 

"So  I  am,  Peter,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Tell  me 
what  you  see  just  below  and  between  Ursa  Major's 
hind  feet." 

All  the  children  looked,  and  Peter  answered, 

"Three  faint  stars,  like  a  triangle." 

"Put  them  in  with  pebbles,"  said  Uncle  Henry, 
and  Peter  did. 

"That's  one  lion;  the  little  one.  Now  we'll  find 
the  big  one  and  draw  them  both." 

Then  Uncle  Henry  drew  a  long  line  through  the 
two  stars  at  the  root  of  the  great  bear's  tail,  and 
extended  it  to  the  three  little  pebbles  in  a  triangle 
under  the  bear's  feet,  and  through  the  triangle,  and 
beyond  as  far  again.  At  the  end  of  this  line  he  put 
a  large  pebble.  (3) 

"There,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "is  the  star  Regulus, 


THE   STAR  PEOPLE 


which  is  in  the  big 
lion's  heart.  See  if 
you  can  find  the  rest 
of  him." 

Betty  soon  picked 
out  the  lion's  head, 
and  Paul  added  his 
hind  quarters,  and 
when  Uncle  Henry 
had  drawn  outlines 
around  both  big 
and  little  lions  they 
looked  like  this. 


.. 

'^V:-/.'r?-:'V,  x;r;v:.>v^:^^-^'vl'" 


SECOND    EVENING 


21 


"Now  show  us  the  Swan,"  urged  Peter. 

"Yes,  and  the  Dragon!"  reminded  Paul. 

"You  children  haven't  forgotten  a  single  one  I 
promised,"  laughed  Uncle  Henry.  "Well,  here  goes; 
everybody  find  the  dipper  again." 

Everybody  did. 

"Now  draw  a  line  straight  up  through  the  middle 
of  the  dipper's  bowl  and  keep  on  with  it  a  little  over 
three  times  the  length  of  the  dipper's  handle.  (4)  Put 
a  large  pebble  there  and  see  if  you  can  find  the  star. 
It's  in  the  swan's  tail,  and  he  looks  as  if  he  was 
flying  overhead,  with  his  wings  spread,  and  his  long 
neck  stretched  out  ahead  of  him." 

"Is  he  sort  of  like  a  cross?"  inquired  Betty  after 
a  moment. 

"Right,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Put  him  in  with 
pebbles." 

This  shows  how  to  find  and  draw  the  swan  the 
way  the  children  and  Uncle  Henry  did. 


22  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"Now  the  dragon,  Uncle  Hen!"  urged  Peter. 

"Are  you  sure,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "that  you 
promise  not  to  have  any  bad  dreams  about  the 
dragon  if  I  show  him  to  you  before  you  go  to  bed?" 

"Sure!"  chorused  the  Society  of  Star-Gazers. 

"Well,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "the  dragon  is  very 
terrible,  but  he  is  afraid  of  bears,  so  he  is  squirming 
away  as  fast  as  he  can  from  them.  He  is  wriggling 
a  little  faster  too,  because  Ursa  Major  is  on  one  side 
of  him  and  Ursa  Minor  on  the  other.  Draw  a  line 
through  the  stars  in  the  tips  of  the  swan's  wings, 
back  toward  the  head  of  the  bear-driver,  and  you'll 
find  the  dragon's  head  about  halfway.  (5)  It's  a  little 
triangle  of  stars,  and  from  that  the  dragon's  body 
winds  around  the  little  bear's  body  and  down  above 
the  big  bear's  back." 

"I  see  all  of  him!"  exclaimed  Paul. 

"Here  are  the  pebbles,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "put 
the  dragon,  or  Draco,  where  he  belongs." 

Paul  did,  and  Uncle  Henry  finished  him. 

"To-morrow  night,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "we'll 
find  some  more  of  the  star  people  and  sky  animals. 
They  even  have  musical  instruments  in  this  Skyland 
of  ours,  so  we'll  find  the  lyre  that  the  sky  ladies 
play  on !  One  of  the  sky  gentlemen  is  a  great  archer, 
too,  so  we'll  find  him  shooting  his  bow  and  arrow 
at  a  giant  scorpion,  and — 

"Oh,  let's  find  that  now!"  pleaded  Peter  and  Paul 
in  unison. 

Betty  did  not  join  in  the  chorus.  She  was  asleep, 
with  her  head  in  Uncle  Henry's  lap. 


SECOND    EVENING 


111111 


"To-morrow  night,"  smiled  Uncle  Henry.  "Betty 
will  want  to  hear,  too,  about  the  sky  lady's  mandolin, 
or  harp,  or  lyre,  or  whatever  it  is." 

Then  he  picked  up  the  little  girl  without  waking 
her,  and  the  boys  followed  him  up  the  walk  into 
"Seven  Oaks"— and  bed. 


THIRD  EVENING 

UNCLE  HENRY'S  MAGIC  TURNS  THE  LYRE  INTO  A 
UKELELE — AND  THE  ARCHER'S  ARROW  MISSES  THE 
LOVELY  SWAN  AND  HITS  THE  HORRID  SCORPION 

BETTY  had  been  informed  by  her  brothers  that 
Uncle  Henry  had  promised,  after  she  fell  asleep,  to 
show  the  lyre  that  the  star  ladies  play  when  they 
have  nothing  else  to  do. 

Since  she  had  a  new  ukelele  herself,  and  was 
learning  to  play  it,  her  interest  in  all  stringed  in- 
struments was  keen,  and  as  soon  as  the  Society  of 
Star-Gazers  had  come  together  on  the  beach  the  next 
evening,  she  demanded  that  the  lyre  be  found. 

"All  right,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "find  the  swan's 
wing,  on  the  side  of  him  toward  the  dragon.  Get 
that?  Well  then,  look  for  a  very  bright  star  between 
that  wing  and  the  swan's  neck,  and  about  the  length 
of  the  swan's  neck  away  from  the  tip  of  the  wing. 
You  can't  miss  it,  for  it's  the  brightest  star  anywhere 
near.  Its  name  is  Vega,  and  some  one  has  called  it 
'the  arc-light  of  the  sky. '  "  (6) 

"I  see  it!"  cried  Betty  and  the  boys  together. 

"Look  for  two  smaller  stars  that  make  a  triangle 
with  Vega,  and  then  for  three  more  that  make  a  long 
diamond  shape.  That's  right,  Peter,  put  down  the 
pebbles  and  finish  the  lyre." 

24 


THIRD    EVENING 


"It's  sort  of  a  harp  on  a  foot!"  said  Betty  in  dis- 
appointment. "I  want  to  make  a  ukelele  of  it." 

"Sure,  easy  as  breathing,"  agreed  Uncle  Henry, 
and  promptly  rubbed  out  Lyra  from  the  sand,  and 
made  it  over. 

After  all,  Betty  was  the  baby  and  might  have  her 
own  way  whenever  Uncle  Henry  had  anything  to 
say  about  it.  And  let  no  one  say  that  the  ancients 
had  all  the  imagination,  after  seeing  the  ukelele  that 
Uncle  Henry  made  of  Lyra. 


26  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"We  strive  to  please,"  he  said  as  it  was  finished, 
and  Betty  clapped  her  hands. 

"Now  we  want  to  see  the  archer  shoot  the  giant 
scorpion!"  demanded  Paul,  speaking  for  the  mas- 
culine part  of  the  audience. 

"Just  a  minute,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "I'm  coming 
to  him.  You  can  see  one  of  his  arrows  if  you  look  on 
the  other  side  of  the  swan's  neck,  just  opposite  to 
Betty's  ukelele.  The  archer  shot  at  the  swan  and 
missed  it." 

"Serves  him  right  for  trying  to  kill  the  beauti- 
ful swan.  I  love  'em!'  said  Betty,  with  feel- 
ing. 

"You'll  need  to  use  very  small  pebbles,"  warned 
Uncle  Henry,  "for  Sagitta  is  rather  small  and  quite 
faint." 

"What's  Sagitta?"  asked  Peter. 

"Latin  for  'arrow,'  "  said  Uncle  Henry. 

When  the  arrow  was  found  and  drawn,  it  was  in 
this  position. 


vic^^ 


THIRD    EVENING 


"Now  the  archer!"  demanded  Paul. 

"All  right,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Paul,  draw  a 
line  straight  out  from  the  head  of  the  swan,  right 
on  in  the  direction  he  is  flying,  and  go  about  twice 
the  length  of  the  swan's  neck."  (7) 

Paul  did. 

"Now  tell  me,"  asked  Uncle  Henry,  "  does  any- 
body see  anything,  about  there,  that  looks  like  a 
bow  and  arrow?" 

The     children     searched     the     sky    at    a    point 
a    little    over    two    swan's    necks    ahead    of    the 
swan's    bill,    and 
Peter  cried  trium- 
phantly, 

"I  see  it!  I 
see  it!" 

"Make  it  then," 
said  Uncle  Henry, 
"and  keep  the 
bow  in  the  right 
position  to  the 
swan's  neck." 

When  Peter 
had  all  the  peb- 
bles in  their  right 
positions,  Uncle 
Henry  drew  in 
the  archer's  body, 
and  bow  and 
arrow,  and  they 
looked  like  this: 


28  THE   STAR  PEOPLE 

"He's  just  getting  ready  to  shoot  at  the  scorpion!" 
exclaimed  Paul. 

"Yes,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "and  the  other  star 
people  have  to  look  out  too.  The  people  who  lived 
long  ago  called  Sagittarius,  our  archer,  "the  Bull 
Killer."  They  did  this  because  when  the  stars  of  the 
archer  rise  in  the  east,  they  seem  to  drive  all  the 
stars  of  Taurus,  the  Bull,  over  the  western  edge  of 
the  world.  So  they  said  that  Sagittarius  killed 
off  the  Bull.  We'll  find  Taurus  next  winter." 

"Now  let's  find  the  scorpion,"  urged  Peter. 

"Wait  a  minute!"  begged  Betty,  "I  see  another 
dipper." 

Peter  was  impatient.  Dippers  were  not  interest- 
ing, compared  with  giant  scorpions. 

"Betty,"  he  remarked,  "wouldn't  believe  there 
was  a  little  dipper  a  few  nights  ago,  and  now  she's 
seeing  'em  everywhere." 

But  Betty  had  her  way  as  usual,  and  the  Society  of 
Star-Gazers  paused  before  passing  on  to  the  scorpion. 

"Where  do  you  see  the  new  dipper,  Betty?" 
Uncle  Henry  inquired  with  interest. 

"It's  right  back  of  the  leg  the  archer  is  kneeling 
on."  (8) 

"You're  quite  right,"  Uncle  Henry  agreed,  "and 
it's  called  'the  milk  dipper,'  because  it's  right  on  the 
edge  of  the  milky  way." 

"Why  that's  the  bowl  Ursa  Major  tried  to  get 
Bootes9  hot  milk  out  of,  and  burned  his  mouth,  and 
upset!"  explained  Betty,  with  a  sudden  inspiration. 

"So  it  is,"  agreed  Uncle  Henry,  "  although  I  must 


THIRD    EVENING 


confess  I  never  thought  of  the  milk  dipper  when  I 
made  up  that  rhyme  for  you  youngsters." 

"Now  the  scorpion!"  insisted  Peter. 

"Oh,  have  your  old  scorpion,  then,  Mr.  Peter!" 
exploded  Betty,  "I  don't  want  to  see  the  horrid 
thing.  I'm  going  to  the  cottage  and  show  Katy  the 
milk  dipper." 

And  she  went. 

So  it  was  with  Peter  and  Paul  alone  that  Uncle 
Henry  found  the  scorpion  that  Sagittarius,  the 
archer,  is  always  aiming  at.  (9)  It  would  have  been 
easy  for  Betty  to  find,  for  it  really  looks  a  good  deal 
like  a  scorpion.  See  if  you  don't  think  so  when 
you've  found  it. 


After  Uncle  Henry  had  shown  the  boys  how  the 
big,  red  star,  called  Antares,  in  the  heart  of  the 
scorpion,  has  a  reddish  color,  Peter  suggested  that 
it  was  probably  red  because  the  Archer  had  already 
shot  an  arrow  through  the  scorpion's  heart,  and 
made  it  bleed. 


30  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

After  that,  since  neither  the  boys  nor  Uncle  Henry 
ever  wanted  Betty  left  out  of  anything,  and  since 
they  knew  she  would  have  stayed  if  Peter  and  she 
hadn't  wanted  different  things  at  the  same  time,  the 
Society  of  Star-Gazers  adjourned  until  the  next 
evening. 

On  the  porch,  however,  Uncle  Henry  made  up 
this  poem  and  repeated  it  to  Peter  and  Paul  before 
they  went  in  to  bed. 

"The  Scorpion's  heart  has  bled, 
Antares-star  is  red, 
The  Archer  made  an  arrow-wound, 
But  Scorpio  isn't  dead. 

The  Archer  draws  his  strong-bow, 
To  shoot  a  sharp  new  arrow. 
I  hope  he  hits  the  Scorpion, 
And  kills  the  poisonous  fellow.'* 


FOURTH  EVENING 

THE  VIRGIN  IS  TOO  BUSY  FEEDING  HER  SKY  POULTRY, 
SO    CASSIOPEIA    GETS    THE    UKELELE    TO    PLAY 

BETTY,  in  spite  of  her  pretended  lack  of  curiosity 
about  the  scorpion,  was  down  on  the  beach  the 
next  evening  ahead  of  the  other  members  of  the 
Society  of  Star-Gazers.  Uncle  Henry  found  her  in 
the  twilight,  sitting  cross-legged  before  the  sand- 
drawing  of  Scorpio. 

As  she  searched  the  southern  sky  to  find  the  con- 
stellation, she  was  singing  Uncle  Henry's  verses 
about  the  archer  and  Scorpio  over  and  over,  to  a 
tune  of  her  own  improvising. 

The  boys  had  made  bows  and  arrows  from  green 
saplings  during  the  morning  and  had  raced  about  for 
some  time  with  "Rags,"  in  search  of  giant  scorpions 
to  shoot  at.  They  discovered  them  in  the  most 
unexpected  objects — trees,  rocks,  and  even  boats. 
The  hunt  had  been  accompanied  by  a  war  chant, 
with  the  scorpion  verses  for  words.  It  was  a  faint 
echo  of  this  that  Betty  was  crooning  to  herself  now. 

As  Uncle  Henry  approached  her  she  looked  up  at 
him  and  said, 

"Aren't  there  any  ladies  among  the  star  people, 
Uncle  Henry?  You  told  about  the  lyre  that  they 
play  on,  but  you  haven't  shown  any  of  them  to  us." 

31 


32  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"Well,  Betty,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  sitting  down 
beside  her,  "there  are  several  ladies  in  our  star 
country,  but  only  two  of  them  are  in  our  sight  in  the 
summer  time.  Let's  get  the  boys  and  we'll  find  both 
the  ladies  and  take  a  vote  to  decide  which  of  them 
shall  have  your  lyre-ukelele  to  play  on." 

Betty  called,  in  her  high  little  voice,  for  Peter  and 
Paul  to  hurry,  and  they  raced  down  from  the  porch 
with  "Rags"  in  tow. 

"Uncle  Hen,"  asked  Peter,  "'Rags'  wants  to 
know  if  there  aren't  any  more  dogs  in  the  sky?" 
"Sure,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "sky  folks  are  very  fond 
of  dogs.  We've  found  the  two  that  belong  to  the 
herdsman.  Besides  them,  there  are  two  others,  but 
we  can't  see  them  'til  next  winter.  And,  of  course, 
there's  Cerberus,  the  ugly,  monstrous  three-headed 
dog  that  Hercules  killed.  We'll  find  him  to-night." 

"Oh,  that's  great!"  said  Peter,  and  he  and  Paul 
settled  down  with  "Rags"  between  them.  "Rags" 
looked  expectantly  at  Uncle  Henry,  who  said, 

"But  first  I've  promised  Betty  to  find  the  sky 
ladies  that  we  can  see  now,  and  let  one  of  them  have 
the  ukelele." 

"Rags'"  ears  dropped  and  he  lost  interest.  Peter 
and  Paul,  however,  remembering  Betty's  temper  of 
the  previous  evening,  said, 

"Of  course,  ladies  first." 

"All  right,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "everybody  find 
Arcturus  in  the  hem  of  Bootes*  kilt.  Get  that?  Well, 
then,  draw  a  line  in  the  sand,  Betty,  from  Bootes* 
right  shoulder  through  Arcturus.  and  extend  the  line 


FOURTH    EVENING  33 

about  as  far  again.  (10)    Then  look  in  the  sky  at  that 
point  for  a  bright  star. 

"I  see  it!"  cried  Betty.  The  boys  picked  it  out 
next  moment. 

"Well,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "it  doesn't  look  much  like 
an  ear  of  corn,  does  it?  That's  what  it  is,  though;  an 
ear  of  corn  held  in  the  Virgin's  left  hand.  Its  name, 
Spica,  means  just  that.  The  Virgin  is  scattering  grains 
from  the  ear  of  corn  with  her  right  hand,  to  attract  the 
birds  of  Starland — the  swan,  the  eagle,  and  the  dove. 
We'll  find  the  eagle  a  little  later  on,  but  the  dove  is  so 
far  south  that  we  never  see  it  well.  The  boys  and 
girls  in  South  America  see  Noah's  dove,  but  we  can't." 

"Now,"  continued  Uncle  Henry,  "follow  along 
northward  from  Spica  to  a  point  just  below  the  big 
lion's  tail.  There  is  the  Virgin's  head.  Between 
it  and  Spica  are  two  fairly  bright  stars.  The  one 
nearest  Spica  is  the  Virgin's  shoulder.  Her  left  arm 
hangs  at  her  side,  from  the  shoulder  to  Spica,  while 
her  right  arm  extends  in  the  direction  of  the  great 
bear's  tail.  Put 
down  the  pebbles 
as  fast  as  you  find 
the  stars,  Betty." 

When  Betty  and  ||||^,^ 
Uncle  Henry  had 
finished  the  Vir- 
gin, or  Virgo,  as 
she  is  called  in 
Latin,  she  looked 
like  this: 


34  THE   STAR  PEOPLE 

Then  Uncle  Henry  added  the  little  half  circle  of 
small  pebbles,  with  one  larger  one  near  the  centre, 
shown  in  the  picture  just  at  the  left  of  Bootes.  (11) 

"What  is  that,  Uncle  Henry?"  asked  all  the 
children  at  once. 

"Do  you  see  it  in  the  sky?"  he  asked. 

The  children  quickly  found  it. 

"What  does  it  look  like,  then?" 

Peter  thought  it  was  a  handful  of  corn-grains  from 
Virgo's  hand. 

Betty  said,  "A  necklace." 

"That's  nearest  right,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "It  is 
called  Corona  Borealis,  or  the  Northern  Crown.  That 
brightest  star  is  named  Gemma,  so  you  see  it  might 
be  a  gem  in  a  necklace,  too.  The  Virgin  looks  as  if 
she  was  going  to  bend  over  and  pick  it  up.  Perhaps 
she  will  some  day." 

"I  think,"  said  Paul,  "  that  she's  too  busy  a  person 
to  give  Betty's  ukelele  to.  Who's  the  other  lady?" 

" I  quite  agree  with  you,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "The 
Virgin  seems  very  much  occupied.  Well,  there  is 
another  lady  in  Starland.  Her  name  is  Cassiopeia, 
and  since  she  has  nothing  to  do  but  sit  in  a  chair, 
perhaps  Betty  will  let  Cassiopeia  have  the  ukelele 
to  play.  Virgo  won't  be  jealous,  either,  because 
she  is  clear  across  the  sky  from  Cassiopeia;  too  far 
away  to  see.  A  long  line  drawn  across  the  sky  from 
Spica  through  the  pole  star  in  the  little  bear's  tail- 
tip  will  reach  Cassiopeia.  (12) 

"She  is  easy  to  find,  because  she  looks  just  like  a 
big  letter  W.  Does  anybody  see  it?" 


FOURTH  EVENING 


The  trio  all  found  the  W  very  quickly.  You  will, 
too,  for  it  is  very  conspicuous  in  the  northeastern 
sky  in  July  and  August.  Uncle  Henry  showed  the 
children  that  Cassiopeia  s  W  had  to  be  turned 
upside  down,  into  an  M,  before  she  could  be  made  td 
sit  in  her  chair  properly. 

Here  is  how  Cassiopeia  looked: 


ssfiviK 
Slfli 


§feilt 


"She  hasn't  a  blessed  thing  to  do.  We'll  give  the 
lyre  to  her,"  said  Betty. 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  going  to  give  the 
ukelele  to  Cassiopeia,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Perhaps 
it  will  make  her  feel  happier.  She  has  had  a  rather 
sad  life.  Long  ago  Cassiopeia  was  queen  of  ^Ethiopia, 
and  was  very  beautiful.  But  she  was  so  proud  of 
her  good  looks  that  she  boasted  herself  prettier  than 
the  lovely  sea-nymphs.  This  made  Neptune,  the 
god  of  the  sea,  so  angry  that  he  sent  one  of  his 
worst  sea-monsters  to  make  trouble  along  the  shore 
of  Cassiopeia's  country. 

"And   as  if  that  wasn't  bad  enough,   Neptune 


36 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


demanded  Cassiopeia's  daughter  Andromeda  as  a 
sacrifice. 

"So  you  see  it  seems  good  to  see  Cassiopeia  getting 
a  little  justice  done  her,  if  it's  only  the  present  of  a 
ukelele." 

"Teacher  says,"  piped  up  Betty,  "that  the  lady's 
statue  on  top  of  the  Court  House  is  'Justice.9  What 
does  she  have  that  little  pair  of  scales  in  her  hand  for, 
Uncle  Henry?" 

"The  scales  are  to  help  her  in  weighing  the  good 
and  bad  that  people  do,"  explained  Uncle  Henry, 
"and  speaking  of  scales,  there's  a  pair  of  them  in  the 
sky,  too.  If  you  will  look  between  the  Scorpio  and 
the  Virgin  you  will  find  the  scales.  (13)  They  are 
called  Libra,  which  is  Latin  for  'balance.'  There  are 
four  main  stars  in  Libra,  which  make  an  oblong." 

This  is  how  Libra,  the  balance,  looked  when  the 
children  and  Uncle  Henry  had  finished  drawing  it: 


FOURTH    EVENING  37 

"Now,"  said  Peter,  with  an  air  of  having  shown 
great  patience,  "  we  want  to  see  that  three-headed 
dog.  I  forgot  his  name." 

"Cerberus"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "But  in  order  to 
find  him  we'll  have  to  find  Hercules,  the  great  strong 
man,  for  Hercules  has  Cerberus  fast  by  one  of  his 
throats  and  is  beating  at  his  three  ugly  heads  with  a 
big  club.  At  the  same  time,  Hercules  has  his  left 
foot  on  the  dragon's  head,  so  you  see  he  is  kept 
busy." 

"Where  do  we  begin?"  asked  Paul,  impa- 
tiently. 

"Draw  a  line,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "from  Vega 
in  the  ukelele  to  Gemma  in  the  Northern  Crown; 
the  Virgin's  necklace  we  found  a  while  ago,  you 
know." 

Paul  did  it.    (14) 

"Now,"  directed  Uncle  Henry,  "look  about 
half-way  between,  and  you'll  find  Hercules9  legs. 
His  left  leg  is  nearly  straight,  but  his  right  has 
the  knee  bent  a  little.  Hercules9  legs  and  the 
sides  of  his  body  and  his  belt  make  sort  of  an  H 
shape. 

"Oh,  I  see  it!"  exclaimed  Peter.  "Shall  I  make 
him,  Uncle  Hen?" 

"Sure,  go  ahead,  Pete;  and  the  rest  of  you  watch 
for  Hercules9  head  and  arms." 

When  the  children  had  put  down  pebbles  to 
represent  all  the  stars  in  Hercules,  and  had  con- 
nected them  with  lines  in  the  sand,  Hercules  looked 
like  this : 


38 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


:&?5^ 


"Oh,"  broke  out  Betty,  excitedly,  "he's  got  the 
ugly  dog  in  his  left  hand!" 

Then  she  added  the  three  heads  of  Cerberus,  and 
it  was  Uncle  Henry's  turn  to  draw  in  the  outline  of 
Hercules,  and  complete  the  picture,  like  this: 


mat 

msmi 


FOURTH    EVENING  39 

"You  have  probably  read,"  said  Uncle  Henry, 
"about  the  twelve  great  labors  Hercules  performed. 
He  had  to  be  very  strong  to  do  them,  but  of  course  he 
was  born  that  way.  They  say  he  even  rose  up  out 
of  his  cradle  and  strangled  two  serpents  that  the 
goddess  Juno  sent  to  destroy  him." 

The  Society  of  Star-Gazers  became  very  enthusi- 
astic about  Hercules  after  he  was  all  finished.  So 
will  you  when  you  see  how  big  and  strong  and 
beautiful  he  is,  almost  straight  over  your  head  in  the 
summer  sky  just  after  dark.  You  will  enjoy  him 
more  if  you  lie  on  your  back  to  look,  as  the  Society  of 
Star-Gazers  did  on  the  beach. 

While  they  were  all  flat  on  the  sand,  looking  up 
into  the  great  blue-black,  star-sprinkled  bowl, 
Uncle  Henry  made  up  this  poem,  and  recited  it 
before  the  Society  adjourned  for  the  night: 

"Hercules  the  strong  man — 
Feel  his  muscle! 
Feel  his  muscle! 

Hercules  the  strong  man — 
See  him  tussle! 
See  him  tussle! 

Right  hand  holds  a  club — 
I  can  see; 
I  can  see. 

Left  hand  grips  a  throat — 
One  of  three; 
One  of  three. 


40  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

Three-head  dogs  are  freaks — 
Queer  to  us; 
Queer  to  us. 

That's  because  you  never  saw 
Cerberus; 
Cerberus. 


FIFTH  EVENING 

IN  WHICH  A  DOLPHIN  WITH  AN  EAR  FOR  MUSIC  SAVES 
A  POET'S  LIFE — AND  UNCLE  HENRY  PUTS  TWO 
BIRDS  IN  ONE  POEM 

DURING  the  next  day  Peter  and  Paul  had  seen  a 
blue-racer  in  the  grass,  and,  with  Rags'  assistance, 
had  chased  it  off  into  the  woods  behind  the  cottage. 

So  it  was  only  natural  for  Peter  to  ask  Uncle  Henry 
whether  there  were  any  snakes  among  the  star 
creatures. 

Uncle  Henry  had  said,  "Two,"  and  promised  to 
show  the  children  a  very  big  one,  and  an  old  man 
having  a  struggle  with  it  besides. 

Peter  and  Paul  were  expectantly  waiting  on  the 
sand  when  Uncle  Henry  and  Betty  came  down  from 
the  porch  that  evening  after  dark. 

"Now,"  said  Peter,  "where's  the  snake,  Uncle 
Hen?" 

"We'll  begin  with  his  head,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 
"Everybody  find  the  northern  crown,  or  Virgo's 
necklace,  and  Hercules9  club.  Now  look  just  be- 
tween them  and  you  will  see  five  stars  in  a  sort  of 
little  cross,  quite  close  together.  Get  that?"  (15) 

The  children  soon  found  all  five  and  put  down 
little  stones  to  represent  them  on  the  sand. 

"All  right,  then;  now  trace  a  line  from  star  to 
star,  down  toward  Scorpio,  and  then  across  toward 


42  THE   STAR  PEOPLE 

the  archer,  and  then  up  in  the  direction  of  the  swan. 
That  line  is  the  Serpent.  It  is  writhing  in  the  hands 
of  Ophiuchus,  the  old  man  who  is  called  'The 
Serpent-bearer.'  His  head  and  Hercules9  head  are 
only  a  little  way  apart.  Look  for  a  bright  star  just 
east  of  the  bright  one  in  the  head  of  Hercules  and  you 
will  have  the  head  of  Ophiuchus.  Then  look  where  his 
shoulders  would  naturally  come  and  you  will  see  two 
stars  close  together  in  each  shoulder.  Find  them?" 

The  children  did,  and  placed  pebbles  for  the  head 
and  shoulders  of  Ophiuchus. 

"Now,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "draw  two  long  lines 
down  from  the  shoulders,  through  the  Serpent  and 
beyond,  and  you  will  have  the  old  man's  body,  legs 
and  feet.  One  foot  is  just  in  front  of  the  archer's 
bow;  the  other  is  just  above  the  red  heart  of  Scorpio. 
You  will  have  to  imagine  his  arms,  and  his  hands 
holding  the  serpent  while  it  squirms." 

When  all  the  pebbles  were  down  and  all  the  lines 
were  drawn,  Orphiuchus  and  the  serpent,  or  Serpens 
in  Latin,  looked  like  this: 


FIFTH    EVENING  43 

"Are  there  any  more  snakes,  Uncle  Hen?"  in- 
quired Paul  expectantly. 

"Yes,  a  sea-serpent  made  of  very  faint  stars," 
said  Uncle  Henry,  "but  he  is  rather  hard  to  trace 
out  and  the  only  other  creature  I  have  left  now 
that  is  anything  like  a  snake  is  a  dolphin,  or  por- 
poise, and  he  isn't  much  like  one.  We'll  find  him, 
anyway,  and  then  if  you  prefer  to  make  a  sea-horse 
out  of  the  dolphin,  or  Delphinus,  as  you  would  say 
in  Latin,  why  go  ahead  and  do  it.  The  animals  in 
Starland  are  very  obliging.  They  will  turn  into 
anything  you  like  to  see  in  them. 

"Where  is  the  dolphin,  Uncle  Henry?"  asked 
Betty. 

"Well,"  said  he,  "draw  a  line  through  the 
beak  of  the  swan  and  the  arrow,  or  Sagitta,  and 
it  will  strike  Delphinus.  (16)  The  arrow  is  about 
halfway  between  the  swan  and  the  dolphin. 
See  it?" 

The  children  soon  found  the  dolphin  and  mapped 
his  skeleton  with  pebbles.  Then  Uncle  Henry  put 
it  to  a  vote  of  the  Society  of  Star-Gazers  whether 
Delphinus  should  be  finished  up  as  a  dolphin  or  a 
sea-horse.  The  vote  was  two  to  one  for  the  sea- 
horse. 

Uncle  Henry  drew  a  sigh  of  relief;  he  didn't  know 
quite  what  a  dolphin  looked  like,  and  he  had  seen  a 
picture  of  a  sea-horse  in  the  dictionary  only  the  day 
before.  So  Delphinus  turned  out  to  look  like  this. 
If  you  insist  on  having  him  a  dolphin,  why  draw  him 
differently  yourself: 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


"I  wonder,"  said  Betty  thoughtfully,  "who  rides 
the  sea-horses.  Do  the  mermaids,  Uncle  Henry?" 

"I  don't  know  about  the  mermaids,"  he  answered, 
"but  I  do  know  that  an  ancient  poet  and  musician, 
named  Arion,  was  saved  from  drowning  by  riding  to 
shore  on  a  dolphin.  It  was  like  this: 

"Arion  had  gone  from  his  home  on  the  island  of 
Lesbos  to  Italy,  and  while  there  had  made  a  great 
deal  of  money  by  his  singing." 

"Just  like  Caruso  in  New  York,"  exclaimed  Paul. 

"Yes,"  said  Uncle  Henry,"and  also  like  Caruso, 
Arion  decided  to  go  home  for  a  visit.  Well,  on  the 
way  to  Lesbos  the  sailors  decided  to  murder  Arion 
and  get  all  the  money  he  was  taking  home  with  him. 
He  had  gone  on  a  regular  pirate  ship  you  see.  The 
pirates  were  all  ready  to  kill  Arion,  but  he  begged  so 
hard  to  play  just  one  little  melody  on  his  lute  before 
he  died  that  the  pirate  sailors  said,  'Yes,  he  might 


FIFTH    EVENING  45 

play  just  one.'  You  would  hardly  believe  it,  but 
the  melody  that  Arion  played  was  so  catchy  and 
tuneful  that  it  attracted  a  number  of  dolphins,  who 
began  to  dance  and  turn  somersaults  about  the  ship. 
Then  Arion  watched  his  chance — and  jumped  over- 
board— and  one  of  the  friendly,  music-loving  dolphins 
carried  him  back  to  Lesbos  on  his  back." 

"My,  but  I'm  glad  he  got  away  from  those  awful 
pirates!"  cried  Betty  with  heartfelt  fervor. 

"  It's  too  bad  the  horrid  sailors  got  his  money  after 
all,"  said  Peter.  "If  they  hadn't  he  might  have  got 
something  nice  for  the  dolphin  to  eat  when  he  got 
to  that  place  where  he  lived." 

"The  dolphin  fared  better  than  that,"  Uncle 
Henry  assured  the  children.  "It  pleased  the  sea 
god  Neptune  so  much  to  have  one  of  his  creatures 
save  a  poet's  life  that  he  had  that  dolphin  put  in  the 
sky  among  the  stars,  and  we  see  him  there  now  as 
the  constellation  Delphinus." 

"What's  next?"  demanded  Peter  when  the  story 
of  Delphinus  was  finished. 

"The  next  three,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  shaking  his 
head  sadly,  "are  the  last." 

"The  last?!!"  chorused  the  Society  of  Star-Gazers 
incredulously. 

"Well,  maybe  not  absolutely  the  last,"  admitted 
Uncle  Henry,  "but  the  last  for  this  Summer.  There 
is  a  whole  dozen  more  of  the  Star  People  in  our 
northern  sky,  but  we  can't  see  them  until  next 
Winter." 

"Why?"  inquired  Betty  anxiously. 


46  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"It's  a  long  story,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Some- 
time I'll  tell  you  all  of  it,  beginning  with  the  fact 
that  the  pole  of  the  earth  always  points  to  the 
north  star,  where  the  little  bear's  tail  is  fastened, 
you  remember.  I  promise  to  show  you  all  the 
rest  of  the  star  animals  and  people  when  I 
come  home  for  my  Christmas  vacation.  Will  that 
do,  if  I  show  you  a  wonderful  eagle  to-night — 
and  a  sea  goat  and  a  water  carrier  to  finish  up 
with?" 

The  children  were  disappointed,  but  they  trusted 
Uncle  Henry.  He  wouldn't  stop  showing  animals 
and  people  until  he  had  to;  they  all  knew  that. 

Peter  said, 

"We'll  have  a  whole  dozen  to  look  forward  to 
next  Christmas.  Sort  of  a  present  from  Uncle 
Henry.  Come  on,  Uncle  Hen,  let's  find  the  eagle 
and  the  sea  goat  and  water  carrier!" 

The  others  agreed  with  Peter. 

"The  eagle,  or  Aquila"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "is 
easy  to  find  because  of  a  very  bright  star,  called 
Altair,  which  is  right  in  his  neck.  You  will  find  it 
near  the  arrow,  or  Sagitta,  between  the  end  of  the 
serpent's  tail  and  Delphinus.  (17)  Does  anybody 
see  Altair?" 

"I  do,"  said  Betty,  "it's  right  between  two  other 
stars  that  aren't  so  bright." 

"Right,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Put  down  pebbles 
to  represent  all  three,  Betty,  and  we'll  find  the 
rest  of  the  eagle,  or  Aquila,  as  it  would  be  in 
Latin." 


FIFTH   EVENING 


47 


When  the  three  pebbles  were  in  place  they  stood 
in  this  relation  to  Sagitta  and  Delphinus: 


"Now,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "draw  a  line  down- 
ward through  the  three  stars  and  a  little  more  than 
twice  as  far  again  and  what  do  you  see?" 

"Another  star,"  said  Paul. 

"Put  it  in,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "and  then  draw 
another  line  from  the  upper  of  the  first  three  stars 
in  the  direction  of  the  handle  of  the  'milk  dipper  '  in 
Sagittarius,  the  archer.  Continue  this  about  four 
times  the  length  of  the  line  that  joins  the  first  three 
stars  together  and  you  will  find  two  fairly  bright  stars 
close  together.  That's  right,  Paul;  put  in  the  star 
you  find  about  halfway  down  the  line,  too.  Now 
draw  a  line  from  the  two  fairly  bright  stars  back  in 
the  direction  of  the  tail  of  the  sea-horse,  or  Delphinus, 
until  it  almost  meets  the  first  line  you  drew.  There 
you  will  find  another  fairly  bright  star.  Now  it  is 
easy  to  finish  the  eagle's  skeleton.  " 


48 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


When  the  eagle's  skeleton  was  finished  Peter 
thought  it  looked  more  like  a  big  arrowhead  than 
an  eagle,  but  when  Uncle  Henry  had  drawn  the 
outline  of  Aquila,  the  Society  of  Star-Gazers  admitted 
the  resemblance  to  the  bird. 

"Now  where's  that  sea  goat?"  inquired  Peter. 

"Follow  the  line  of  the  first  three  stars  we  found 
in  Aquila  downward,  and  just  a  little  way  beyond 
where  it  ends  in  the  tip  of  the  eagle's  wing  you  will 
see  two  rather  faint  stars,  close  together.  (18)  They 
are  at  one  corner  of  a  'cocked  hat'  such  as  you  make 
out  of  newspaper  when  you  play  soldier — sort  of  a 
Napoleon's  hat.  It  is  upside  down.  When  you  find 
it  and  put  down  pebbles  for  stars  I'll  show  you 
how  the  good  imaginations  the  ancient  people  had 
turned  the  cocked  hat  into  a  sea  goat." 

This  shows  how  Capricornus  the  sea  goat  looked 


FIFTH  EVENING 


49 


when  the  children  and  Uncle  Henry  had  finished 
him.  I  leave  it  to  you  to  decide  whether  or  not  he 
looks  more  like  a  cocked  hat. 


"When  we  have  found  Capricornus  the  sea  goat," 
said  Uncle  Henry,  "  it  is  easy  to  find  Aquarius  or  the 
water  carrier.  Just  prolong  the  line  that  connects 
the  goat's  right  foot  with  his  tail  until  it  runs  close 
to  a  little  triangle  of  three  stars  with  another  in  the 
centre.  (19)  It  looks  a  little  like  the  head  of  the  Ser- 
pent we  found  squirming  in  Ophiuchus'  hands,  but  it 
is  the  water- jar  Aquarius  is  carrying." 

"Oh,  I  see  it,"  cried  Paul. 

The  other  stars  in  Aquarius  were  soon  found  and 
represented  by  pebbles.  Then  Uncle  Henry  drew 


50 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


the   outline   that   finished   the   Water-Carrier,   like 
this: 


"Now  we're  all  through?"  inquired  Betty. 

"Until  next  Christmas,"  smiled  back  Uncle  Henry. 

"Can't  we  have  just  one  more  poem?"  teased 
Paul. 

"What  shall  it  be  about?"  asked  Uncle  Henry, 
with  the  air  of  a  man  who  could  write  a  poem  to 
order  on  any  subject. 

"One  about  the  lovely  swan,"  commanded  Betty, 
"you  haven't  made  one  up  about  the  swan." 

Uncle  Henry  was  in  a  quandary;  he  wanted  to 
please  everybody  with  the  last  poem.  He  lay  down 
on  his  back  and  looked  up  at  the  sky  for  so  long  that 
the  children  thought  he  must  have  fallen  asleep. 


FIFTH   EVENING  51 

Finally  Uncle  Henry  began  to  recite, 

"The  eagle  of  Starland 
Got  tired  of  his  tree, 
And  challenged  the  swan  to  a  race. 

"  Come  up  from  the  water! 
Fly  up  and  be  free! 
To  northward  I'll  beat  you  a  chase/ 

The  swan  thought  of  shivers 

And  icebergs  and  frost — 

He  made  up  his  mind  to  race  South. 

So  they  are  still  flying — 

Their  race  can't  be  lost — 

Till  Gabriel  blows  with  his  mouth." 

"What'll  Gabriel  blow?"  inquired  Peter  when  the 
hand-clapping  had  stopped. 

"His  trumpet,  of  course,  silly!"  answered  Betty 
for  Uncle  Henry. 

Just  then  the  children  heard  a  toot  from  an 
automobile  horn  that  they  all  recognized,  and  the 
Society  of  Star-Gazers  raced  with  Uncle  Henry 
back  up  to  "Seven  Oaks  Cottage." 

"Sister"  and  "the  Children's  Father"  had  come 
back  from  their  trip  and  had  surprised  everybody. 

The  summer  sessions  of  the  Society  were  over. 


FIRST  WINTER  EVENING 

THE  "SOCIETY"  LEARNS  WHY  ORION  NEEDS  A  CLUB 
TO  KEEP  FRISKY  TAURUS  IN  ORDER — AND  WHY  WE 
SAY  "BY  JIMINl!"  WHEN  WE  GET  EXCITED 

UNCLE  HENRY  came,  as  he  had  promised,  to  spend 
his  Christmas  holidays  with  "Sister,"  "the  Children's 
Father,"  Peter,  Paul  and  Betty,  in  their  city  apart- 
ment. 

The  children's  hope  for  fair  weather  in  Christmas 
week  was  not  disappointed  either.  The  days  were 
snowy  and  sunny  and  the  nights  frosty  and  clear. 

Only  one  thing  had  worried  the  "Society  of  Star- 
Gazers" — what  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  smooth 
sand  of  the  beach  when  Uncle  Henry  should  begin  to 
point  out  the  sky  people  that  were  visible  in  the  win- 
ter sky?  There  were  pebbles,  it  was  true,  on  the  flat 
roof  of  the  apartment  house,  but  there  was  no  sand. 

The  children  were  certain,  however,  that  Uncle 
Henry  would  find  a  way,  as  he  always  did,  and  sure 
enough,  when  he  arrived  he  brought,  as  one  of  his 
Christmas  gifts  to  the  children,  a  wonderful  black- 
board, an  easel  to  stand  it  upon,  and  plenty  of  white 
chalk. 

After  dinner  on  the  first  night  of  Uncle  Henry's 
visit,  the  Society  of  Star-Gazers  was  bundled  up  in 
warm  coats  and  mufflers  and  he  led  the  way  to  the 

52 


FIRST    WINTER    EVENING 


53 


roof,  carrying  the  blackboard  and  his  pocket  electric 
flashlight. 

Far  above  the  lights  of  the  city  arched  the  great, 
blue-black  bowl  of  the  sky,  filled  with  the  sparkling 
patterns  of  stars  that  the  children  had  learned  to 
know  as  steadfast,  unchanging  friends. 

"Uncle  Henry,"  said  Betty,  "you've  told  us  about 
enough  animals  to  really  fill  a  Noah's  ark,  but  we've 
never  heard  anything  about  Noah  himself.  Isn't 
there  any  Mr.  Noah  in  the  sky?" 

"Well,  Betty,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "There  isn't 
any  constellation  that's  named  for  Noah,  but  he 
was  a  great  hunter,  and  since  there  is  a  great  hunter 
in  the  sky,  we  can  call  him  Noah  if  we  want  to,  even 
if  his  last  name  is  Orion." 

"Noah  O'Ryan!"  laughed  Paul.  "I  know  a  boy 
named  Michael  O'Ryan." 

"It's  not  the  same  spelling,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  as 
he  turned  the  flashlight  on  the  blackboard  while  he 
wrote  the  word  upon 
it,  and  underneath, 
made     three     large 
chalk  dots,  like  this: 

"Find  those  three 
stars,"  said  Uncle 
Henry,  "and  you 
will  have  the  belt  of 
Orion.  It  ought  not 
to  be  hard  to  find 
them,  for  there  are 
no  other  stars  like 


54 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


them  anywhere  in  the  whole  sky.  Those  three 
stars  have  always  attracted  a  lot  of  attention  from 
people  in  all  times  and  countries.  In  the  Bible  Job 
calls  them  'the  bands  of  Orion';  the  Arabs  called 
them  'the  Golden  Nuts';  the  fierce. Masai  Tribe  in 
Africa  call  them  'the  three  old  men';  the  ancient 
Chinese  named  Orion  'Tsan,  'which  means  'three'; 
and  to  the  Eskimos  these  three  stars  appear  to  be 
the  three  steps  that  a  Starland  Eskimo  cuts  in  a 
snowbank  when  he  wants  to  climb  to  the  top  of  it." 
The  children  soon  found  Orion  s  belt  about  a  third 
of  the  way  up  the  southeastern  sky. 

"Now,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "see  who  can  find  his 

shoulders  first.    Here  is  a  piece  of  chalk  for  each  of 

you.    Put  the  shoulders  in  as  soon  as  you  see  them." 

Paul  found  Orion's  right  shoulder,  and  Betty  his 

left,  and  made  large 
chalk  dots  to  show 
how  bright  and 
beautiful  the  stars 
that  mark  the  shoul- 
ders are. 

"Oh,  I  see  his 
feet  ! "  exclaimed 
Betty  delightedly. 

"Put  them  in 
then,"  said  Uncle 
Henry. 

Then  Orion  looked 
like  this  on  the 
blackboard : 


FIRST    WINTER    EVENING  55 

"I'll  tell  you  this  much  more/'  said  Uncle  Henry, 
"and  then  you  must  finish  Orion  by  yourselves.  He 
has  a  great  club,  raised,  ready  to  strike,  in  his  right 
hand,  and  he  holds  a  lion's  skin  on  his  left  arm,  as  a 
shield." 

"What's  he  going  to  hit  at?"  inquired  Peter,  with 
his  boy's  joy  in  battle  uppermost. 

"At  Taurus,  the  wild  bull,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 
"You  see  that  Taurus  is  very  fierce,  and  would  enjoy 
nothing  better  than  to  chase  the  twin  star  boys 
round  and  round  the  sky.  He  might  not  really  want 
to  hurt  the  boys,  whose  names  are  Castor  and  Pollux, 
but  Taurus'  horns  are  very  sharp  and  he  doesn't 
know  how  to  play  gently,  so  it  keeps  Orion  pretty 
busy  getting  between  him  and  Gemini  and  threaten- 
ing the  bull  with  his  club." 

"What's  ' jimini,'  Uncle  Hen?"  said  Paul.  "Sounds 
like  our  swear  word." 

"It  is  the  origin  of  it,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "The 
ancient  Romans  used  to  swear  'by  Gemini,9  and  it 
has  slowly  been  changed  into  your  'jimini.'  Gemini 
is  the  Latin  word  that  means  'twins.'  We'll  find 
them  after  we  finish  up  Orion  and  Taurus,  and  then 
you'll  see  just  how  Orion  keeps  protecting  them  from 
the  bull." 

"Hurry  up,  Uncle  Hen!"  urged  Peter.  "I'm 
dreadful  excited!" 

Uncle  Henry  did,  and  as  a  result  Orion  looked  like 
this: 


56 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


FIRST    WINTER    EVENING  57 

"Ooh!  he's  got  a  sword,  too!"  cried  Paul,  as  Uncle 
Henry  added  the  three  tiny  stars  below  Orion's  belt, 
and  drew  the  outline  around  them. 

"Why  didn't  he  use  the  sword  on  Taurus?"  asked 
Peter. 

"Because  he  knew  Taurus  was  only  playing  in  his 
rough  way,"  Uncle  Henry  replied. 

"Well,  we've  heard  a  lot  about  that  bull,"  said 
Betty.  "Let's  find  him  right  away." 

Uncle  Henry  said  nothing,  but  took  the  chalk  from 
Betty  and  drew  a  light  line  from  Orion's  right  foot 
to  his  left  shoulder,  and  continued  it  upward  about 
the  same  distance.  (20) 

"There,"  he  said,  "that  point  is  just  between  the 
bull's  horns  and  over  his  right  eye.  The  right  eye 
of  Taurus  is  a  very  bright  star  called  Aldebaran. 
Anybody  see  it?" 

"Oh,  I  do!"  said  Paul.  "What,  hasn't  Taurus 
any  left  eye,  Uncle  Hen?" 

"He  has,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "but  he  has  it  closed 
just  now.  He's  winking  it  at  Orion  as  much  as  to 
say,  'Oh,  I  act  fierce,  but  I  wouldn't  hurt  those 
twins  after  all.  I'm  just  playing.'  Go  ahead  and 
put  in  the  stars  for  the  bull's  head  and  horns  as  fast 
as  you  find  them,  youngsters." 

The  children  did,  and  when  Uncle  Henry  had 
showed  them  the  fore  legs  and  shoulder,  which  con- 
tains the  beautiful  little  group  of  faint  stars  called 
the  Pleiades,  Taurus  looked  like  this: 


58 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


"Now  we  want  the  twins!"  cried  Betty. 

"All  right,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "follow  a  line 
straight  up  the  bull's  left  horn  and  a  little  more  than 
the  length  of  the  horn  beyond  its  tip  and  you  will 
reach  Castor,  the  head  of  the  fainter  twin."  (21) 

Peter  and  Paul  began  to  show  great  interest,  be- 
cause they  were  twins  themselves.  They  demanded 
that  each  be  allowed  to  select  one  of  the  sky  children 
and  finish  him  completely,  without  Uncle  Henry's 
assistance. 


FIRST   WINTER   EVENING  59 


• 


60  THE  STAR  PEOPLE 

Paul,  having  first  choice  because  he  was  twenty 
minutes  younger  than  Peter,  selected  Pollux,  and 
Peter  had  to  be  contented  with  the  less  bright  Castor. 

It  was  not  a  difficult  task  for  either  of  the  boys, 
after  finding  the  twin  star  Castor,  for  the  head  of 
Pollux  is  quite  close  beside  it  and  the  bodies  of  both 
star  children  stand  side  by  side,  with  the  feet  just 
above  Orion's  uplifted  club. 

When  Gemini,  the  twins,  were  finished,  the  black- 
board looked  like  this,  and  since  the  children's 
fingers  were  so  stiff  with  the  cold  that  they  could 
hardly  hold  the  chalk,  Uncle  Henry  moved  that 
the  Society  of  Star-Gazers  adjourn  until  the  next 
evening. 


SECOND  WINTER  EVENING 

IN  WHICH  THE  DOGS  OF  ORION  AND  GEMINI  FOLLOW 
THEIR  MASTERS,  PEGASUS  ESCAPES  AS  USUAL,  AND 
ANDROMEDA  GETS  A  NICE  SOFT  BED  OF  HAY  IN 
PLACE  OF  HER  HARD  OLD  ROCK 

"UNCLE  HEN,"  said  Peter,  when  the  Society  was 
assembled  round  the  blackboard,  in  overcoats  and 
mittens,  on  the  following  night,  "what  is  that  very 
bright  star  that  is  down  behind  Orion?  It  looks  sort 
of  important  to  me." 

"Right  you  are,  Pete,"  answered  Uncle  Henry, 
looking  where  the  boy  pointed,  "it  is  important.  It 
is  the  star  Sirius,  the  brightest  star  in  the  whole 
sky.  We'll  begin  with  it  and  find  Orion9 s  dog,  or 
Canis  Major,  which  is  Latin  for  *  bigger  dog." 

"That's  great!"  exclaimed  Paul,  "you  told  us  last 
Summer  that  we'd  find  him  this  Christmas-time." 

"So  I  did,"  agreed  Uncle  Henry.  "Well,  you  can 
always  find  Orion's  dog  by  drawing  a  line  through 
Orion's  belt  and  extending  it  behind  him  until  it 
meets  Sirius.  (22)  You  can't  miss  it  because  it's  so 
bright.  Everybody  see  it?" 

Everybody  did. 

"Now,"  went  on  Uncle  Henry,  "extend  the  line 
that  came  from  Orion's  belt,  curving  it  slightly 
downward  after  it  passes  through  Sirius,  and  you 
will  have  the  dog's  backbone.  Put  in  the  chalk 

61 


62  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

dots  as  we  find  the  stars,  Pete.  Now  draw  lines 
upward  and  downward  from  Sirius,  at  right  angles 
to  the  backbone  line  and  you  will  have  the  dog's 
forelegs  and  ears.  At  a  point  on  the  backbone  about 
twice  the  length  of  the  foreleg  from  Sirius,  you  will 
find  another  fairly  bright  star,  and  below  it  a  little 
way  another  star.  Connect  these  two  and  keep  on 
with  the  line,  at  right  angles  to  the  backbone,  and 
you  will  find  one  hind  foot.  The  other  is  not  far 
in  front  of  it.  Yes,  that's  right,  Betty,  there's  a  star 
in  the  tip  of  his  tail,  too.  And  the  three  stars  near 
Sirius  make  Canis  Major's  nose." 

The  children  soon  finished  the  skeleton  and  Uncle 
Henry  took  the  chalk  and  put  the  flesh  upon  it. 
Then  the  dog  of  Orion  looked  like  this : 


"He's  a  faithful  old  fellow,  isn't  he?"  said  Betty, 
to  always  follow  Mr.  Orion  around  like  that?" 
"I'm     not    always    sure,"    said    Uncle    Henry, 


SECOND   WINTER   EVENING  63 

"whether  the  dog  of  Orion  would  always  be  so 
faithful  if  it  wasn't  for  the  rabbit  that  is  always 
just  ahead  of  him,  almost  under  Orion's  feet." 

"Oh,  show  us  the  rabbit!"  cried  Betty.  Her 
father  had  promised  her  that  when  they  all  went  to 
live  in  a  house  in  the  country,  she  should  have  a 
pair  of  them  for  her  very  own. 

"All  right,  Betty,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "You  can 
find  Lepus,  the  rabbit,  yourself.  The  three  rather 
faint  stars  just  below  Orion  s  right  foot  make  the 
curve  of  his  back.  Join  them  together  with  a  curved 
line  and  extend  it  forward  and  downward  until  it 
passes  through  two  brighter  stars.  The  lowest  of 
these  is  in  the  fore-shoulder  of  the  rabbit.  Now 
draw  lines  backward  from  both  of  these  brighter 
stars,  at  about  right  angles  to  the  line  that  joins  them, 
and  you  will  find  the  rabbit's  hind  hip  and  hind 
foot.  He  is  lying  down  for  a  moment  to  rest.  You 
see  he's  been  galloping  away  from  Canis  Major  for 
such  a  long  time  that  he  is  tired." 

"Poor  little  rabbit!"  cried  Betty,  and  her  little 
face  looked  so  pitiful  in  the  light  of  the  electric  torch 
that  Uncle  Henry  hastened  to  reassure  her  by  saying 
that  the  big  dog  had  never  yet  caught  the  rabbit,  and 
by  the  very  nature  of  things  never  could.  Then  she 
took  heart  to  go  on  putting  in  the  stars. 

"Now,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "you  can  find  the  star 
in  the  rabbit's  eye  by  drawing  a  line  forward  from 
the  upper  one  of  the  brighter  stars,  and  the  star  in 
his  fore-foot  by  drawing  another  forward  and  down- 
ward from  his  fore-shoulder.  That  finishes  his 


64 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


skeleton,  all  except  his  ears.  They  are  made  by 
finding  four  faint  stars  just  under  Orion9 s  left  foot, 
and  using  two  of  them  in  each  ear." 

"Now  can  I  draw  his  outline  in,  too?"  asked 
Betty.  "I  want  to  make  every  bit  of  him  myself." 

"Of  course  you  can!"  exclaimed  Uncle  Henry 
indulgently. 

"You've  got  to  let  me  make  all  of  the  horse,  then, 
when  we  come  to  him!"  exclaimed  Peter. 

"In  just  a  little  while,  Pete,"  said  Uncle  Henry, 
"we're  making  the  rabbit  now." 

"All  right,"  agreed  Peter. 

"Betty  had  looked  longingly  at  rabbits  in  pet 
stores  so  often  that  she  really  did  very  well  at  draw- 
ing the  outline  of  the  sky-rabbit. 

We  leave  it  to  you  to  better  it.  You  can't — unless 
you  love  rabbits  more  than  she  did. 


SECOND   WINTER   EVENING  65 

Betty's  brothers  were  quite  astonished,  and  pleased 
the  little  girl  immensely  by  clapping  their  hands 
when  the  rabbit  was  finished. 

"Now  let  me  do  the  horse!"  demanded  Peter. 

"What'll  be  left  for  me  to  do?"  inquired  Paul 
wistfully,  "if  you  let  Pete  do  the  horse?" 

"That'll  be  all  right,  Paul,"  reassured  Uncle 
Henry,  "the  sky  horse  is  very  large,  but  we'll  give 
you  two  smaller  animals  to  do  yourself  to  make  up 
for  him — Aries,  the  ram,  and  Canis  Minor,  the 
smaller  dog." 

"Fine,"  agreed  Paul.    "I  know  all  'bout  rams." 

The  children  laughed  gleefully.  Paul  had  been 
butted  over  once  by  a  ram  when  they  were  on  a 
summer  visit  to  their  grandfather's  farm. 

"Well,  Pete,"  said  Uncle  Henry  briskly,  "you'll 
find  Pegasus,  the  horse,  grazing  clear  on  the  other 
side  of  the  star  field.  Somebody  built  a  box  stall 
for  him  over  there,  but  he's  so  big  and  strong  that 
he  doesn't  stay  in  it  except  when  he  feels  like  it.  He's 
all  the  time  leaping  the  fence  and  escaping.  When 
you  find  him,  you'll  see  that  he's  doing  that  very 
thing  now.  In  fact,  you'll  catch  him  right  in  the  act ! ' ' 

"Oh,  let's  hurry  then!"  said  Peter,  "he  might 
be  out  before  we  see  him  do  it!" 

"Everybody  find  the  big  dipper,"  directed  Uncle 
Henry.  "You  remember  how  we  found  the  pole  star 
in  the  tip  of  the  little  bear's  tail  by  drawing  a  line 
up  through  the  *  pointer  stars'  of  the  dipper's  bowl, 
on  the  side  away  from  the  handle?  Well,  do  that 
again  now,  and  follow  the  line  through  the  pole  star, 


66  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

passing  behind  Cassiopeia  in  her  chair,  and  con- 
tinuing until  your  line  passes  through  two  fairly 
bright  stars  quite  a  distance  apart.  (23)  A  line  con- 
necting these  stars  marks  the  top  edge  of  Pegasus9 
box  stall,  which  is  called  'the  square  of  Pegasus." 

"Cassiopeia  is  about  halfway  between  the  pole 
star  and  Pegasus.  A  line  drawn  from  the  pole  star 
through  the  back  of  Cassiopeia  fs  chair  will  reach  the 
two  stars  that  form  the  lower  corners  of  Pegasus9 
box  stall."  (24) 

"Oh,  I  see  the  square  now,"  said  Peter. 

"Me,  too,"  said  Paul. 

"It's  very  big,  isn't  it?"  said  Betty. 

"Yes,"  agreed  Uncle  Henry,  "and  Pegasus  is  big, 
too.  He  is  upside  down  just  now,  with  his  head  just 
above  the  western  horizon.  His  nose  points  north- 
ward toward  Delphinus  and  his  neck  curves  up 
from  the  side  of  the  box  stall  that's  away  from  the 
pole  star.  His  fore  feet  curve  up  from  the  side  of  the 
square  that  is  toward  the  pole  star,  and  both  feet 
point  toward  the  swan." 

"I  see  him  now,"  cried  Peter,  and  began  putting 
in  the  chalk  dots  and  lines  for  the  framework  of  the 
box  stall  and  the  skeleton  of  Pegasus9  head  and  fore- 
legs, which  are  all  of  him  that  can  be  seen.  As  Uncle 
Henry  said,  Pegasus  is  just  in  the  act  of  jumping  out 
of  his  stall. 

When  Peter  had  finished  drawing  Pegasus,  the 
horse  of  poets  looked  like  this.  Uncle  Henry  put  in 
the  arrows  pointing  from  the  pole  star,  and  the 
skeletons  of  Delphinus  and  the  swan. 


SECOND  WINTER  EVENING 


67 


68  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"It  seems  to  me,"  observed  Paul  sagely,  "that 
Pegasus9  box  stall  is  a  lot  too  small  for  him." 

"That's  why  he  is  all  the  time  jumping  out  and 
running  away,"  explained  Uncle  Henry.  "I  told 
you  that  we  should  catch  him  in  the  act.  He's 
always  at  it." 

"Pete's  had  his  turn;  now  I  want  to  find  the  ram 
and  the  little  dog,"  said  Paul. 

"If  you'll  wait  just  a  little  longer,"  said  Uncle 
Henry,  "I'd  like  to  show  Betty  the  last  of  the  sky 
ladies,  because  she's  right  close  to  Pegasus." 

Paul's  face  fell  a  little,  but  he  said,  "Ladies  first, 
of  course,"  as  any  gentleman  would. 

"I  said  she  was  a  lady,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "but 
I'm  not  so  sure  that  she  is  acting  like  one.  In  fact, 
she  is  in  an  attitude  that  few  ladies  would  like  to  be 
seen  in,  at  least  not  in  the  plain  view  of  everybody 
who  looks  at  the  sky." 

"What's  she  doing,  Uncle  Henry?"  inquired 
Betty,  in  a  tone  that  said,  "I  guess  it  can't  be  any- 
thing so  very  bad." 

Betty  was  herself  fond  of  climbing  trees,  in 
spite  of  motherly  disapproval  of  such  tomboy 
activities. 

"She's  lying  flat  on  her  back,  with  her  arms  and 
legs  sprawled  out  and  her  head  resting  against  the 
corner  of  Pegasus9  box  stall.  I  should  think  it  might 
be  very  uncomfortable  for  her,  unless  she  is  lying 
on  a  pile  of  hay,  for  Andromeda  has  been  there  a 
very  long  time  in  the  same  position.  The  ancient 
Greeks  said  that  Andromeda  was  chained  to  a 


SECOND   WINTER   EVENING  69 

rock.  Let's  not  have  her  that  way;  it  would  be  so 
disagreeable." 

"She's  probably  asleep  and  doesn't  notice,  but 
we'll  give  her  the  hay,"  said  Betty.  "There's 
nobody  to  tell  her  not  to  lie  down  where  she  likes. 
How  do  we  find  her,  Uncle  Henry?" 

"First  look  for  her  head,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "It 
is  the  same  star  we  found  forming  the  lower  corner 
of  Pegasus*  square  on  the  side  toward  the  pole  star. 
Andromeda's  feet  are  just  below  the  W-shaped 
Cassiopeia.  A  line  drawn  from  the  swan's  beak 
through  his  tail,  and  extended  across  the  sky,  will 
reach  the  stars  in  the  feet.  (25)  Another  line  drawn 
diagonally  across  the  square  of  Pegasus  to  Androm- 
eda's head  and  extended  will  pass  along  her  body, 
and  farther  on,  her  left  foot  will  be  seen  just  above 
the  line.  You  see  her  now,  don't  you,  Betty?" 

"Yes,"  said  Betty,  "and  I  think  I  see  her 
arms." 

"All  right,  draw  her  in,"  Uncle  Henry  en- 
couraged. 

Betty  did,  but  didn't  think  she  could  draw  well 
enough  to  outline  the  sleeping  girl,  so  Uncle  Henry 
did  that.  Then  Andromeda  looked  like  this: 


70 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


SECOND   WINTER   EVENING  71 

Betty  added  a  few  lines  to  show  that  Andromeda 
was  lying  on  a  pile  of  hay,  instead  of  being  chained 
to  that  hard  rock  the  Greeks  insisted  upon. 

"What  is  that  fuzzy  little  star  just  to  her  right, 
about  at  her  hip?"  asked  Paul. 

"I'm  glad  you  noticed  that,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 
"The  astronomers  who  lived  ever  so  long  ago,  long 
before  the  birth  of  Christ  Jesus,  noticed  that  it  looked 
*  fuzzy,'  just  as  you  have,  and  called  it  'the  little 
cloud.'  It  is  now  called  "The  Great  Nebula  in 
Andromeda.9  If  you  looked  at  it  through  a  telescope 
you  would  see  that  it  is  not  one  star,  but  a  great 
many.  Some  of  them,  as  astronomers  who  live  now 
tell  us,  are  as  large  as  our  sun." 

"Ooh,  how  wonderful!"  said  Betty  softly,  and  the 
boys'  faces  showed  that  they  thought  so,  too. 

"Some  night,"  promised  Uncle  Henry,  "we'll 
bring  up  a  little  telescope  and  look  at  'the  little 
cloud'  again.  It  is  a  fine  sight." 

"Now,"  said  Paul  after  a  moment,  "please  can 
I  find  the  ram  and  the  little  dog?" 

"Certainly,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Just  as  Canis 
Major,  the  bigger  dog,  follows  Orion  and  belongs  to 
him,  so  Canis  Minor,  the  littler  dog,  follows  and  be- 
longs to  the  star  children,  the  twins  named  Gemini." 

"Ooh!"  exclaimed  Betty,  "just  like  'Rags'  be- 
longs to  Peter  and  Paul!  We'll  call  the  little  dog 
'Rags'  when  Paul  finds  him." 

"Fine!"  laughed  Uncle  Henry,  "but  I  warn  you 
that  he  won't  come  when  you  call  him  as  well  as  the 
real  live  'Rags'  answers  to  his  name." 


72  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"Where  do  I  start?"  inquired  Paul,  anxious  to 
have  his  chance  to  draw. 

"At  the  feet  of  the  twins,"  directed  Unefe  Henry. 
"Draw  a  line  through  their  feet  and  extend  it  away 
from  the  feet  of  Pollux,  in  the  direction  away  from 
Taurus,  the  bull.  (26)  At  a  point  about  as  for  away 
from  the  foot  of  Pollux  as  the  height  of  the'twins  you 
will  find  a  bright  star,  and  between  it  and  the  foot  of 
Pollux  a  fainter  one.  Draw  a  line  to  connect  them, 
and  you  have  the  little  dog's  backbone.  You  can 
fill  in  the  rest  of  him  any  way  you  like,  for  those  are 
the  only  two  stars  he  has  in  him.  I'll  tell  you  one 
thing,  though.  The  brighter  star  is  at  the  iktle 
dog's  tail  instead  of  his  head.  The  opposite  was  the 
case  with  Orion's  dog." 

The  children  found  the  two  stars  very  easily  and 
Paul  put  down  dots  of  the  right  size  to  represent  them. 
Then  he  drew  the  outline  of  the  little  sky  dog,  making 
him  an  Airedale,  as  you  can  see,  so  that  he  might  be  the 
same  as  his  beloved  flesh  and  blood  name-sake  "Rags." 


"Now  that  we've  found  the  two  dogs,  that  makes 
it  easy  to  find  Cancer  the  Crab,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 


SECOND  WINTER  EVENING 


73 


"Just  draw  a  line  from  Sirius,  in  the  Big  Dog, 
through  the  Little  Dog,  and  extend  it  almost  as  far 
again.  (27)  That's  right.  Now  what  do  you  see?" 

The  children  searched  the  sky  for  some  time,  and 
Betty  finally  said,  "Sort  of  a  sprawly  bunch  of  six 
or  eight  rather  faint  stars." 

"Make  little  chalk-dots  for  them,  then,  Betty,  and 
we'll  try  our  best  to  make  them  look  like  a  crab." 

This  shows  how  Cancer  the  crab  looked  when  he 
was  finished  on  the  blackboard,  and  how  he  crawls 
in  the  sky  away  from  Canis  Major  and  Gemini,  the 
twin  boys.  Perhaps  he  has  learned  by  experience  to 
leave  boys  and  dogs  as  far  behind  as  possible. 


74  THE  STAR  PEOPLE 

"Now  let's  find  the  ram!"  said  Paul.  "I  want  to 
draw  him." 

"The  ram,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "is  very  small,  and 
is  made  of  only  three  stars.  A  line  drawn  from  the 
top  corner  of  Pegasus9  box  stall,  on  the  side  next 
the  pole,  going  straight  down  the  side,  and  extended 
below  it  one  and  a  half  times  the  height  of  the  stall, 
will  point  to  the  ram.  (28)  You  can  also  locate 
Aries,  the  Ram,  by  drawing  a  line  from  the  star 
in  the  swan's  tail,  across  the  stars  in  Andromeda's 
hips,  and  beyond  them  a  little  more  than  the  dis- 
tance from  her  head  to  her  hips.  Don't  mistake  a 
little  triangle  of  stars  that  you  will  see  just  below 
Andromeda's  left  leg  for  the  three  stars  of  Aries. 
Aries  is  a  triangle,  also,  but  it  has  two  fairly  bright 
stars,  while  the  triangle  has  only  one.  Do  you  all  see 
Aries,  the  Ram?" 

The  children  had  all  found  it  after  a  few  moments, 
as  well  as  the  triangle  under  Andromeda's  feet.  When 
Paul  had  made  the  chalk  dots  and  lines  for  Aries9 
skeleton,  Uncle  Henry  drew  the  outline  around  them 
and  the  ram  looked  like  this.  You  will  see  that  in 
order  to  show  Aries  right  side  up,  the  blackboard 
had  to  be  turned  so  that  Andromeda  was  upside  down. 

"While  we  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pegasus  and 
Andromeda  and  Aries  the  Ram  we  may  as  well  find 
the  two  fishes.  One  of  them,  called  the  Northern 
Fish,  lies  just  about  halfway  between  Andromeda's 
body  and  Aries — and  the  other,  called  the  Western 
Fish,  lies  just  back  of  Pegasus'  box  stall,  quite  close 
to  the  water  jar  of  Aquarius.  (29) 


SECOND  WINTER  EVENING 


**§^?p 

— >L«»    P 


Tke 

Box-Sfal 


"The  two  fishes  are  tied  together  by  their  tails. 
The  cord  or  ribbon  runs  eastward  from  the  tail  of 
the  Western  Fish,  running  about  parallel  to  the  side 
of  Pegasus9  stall,  and  then  makes  a  sharp  angle, 
coming  back  toward  Andromeda,  where  it  is  fastened 
to  the  Northern  Fish's  tail." 

When  Pisces,  or  "The  Fishes"  were  found  and 
drawn  with  chalk  they  were  in  this  relation  to 
Pegasus,  Andromeda,  Aries,  and  Aquarius9  Jar. 


76 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


SECOND  WINTER  EVENING  77 

"While  I  think  of  it,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "I  want 
to  tell  you  that  sometimes  you  may  find  a  very 
bright  star  in  a  constellation  where  it  doesn't  seem 
to  belong.  If  you  watch  it  for  a  few  nights  you  will 
see  that  it  moves.  It  isn't  a  star  at  all,  but  a  planet 
or  "wanderer."  Sometime  I'll  show  you  how  to 
know  all  the  planets  by  sight  and  name.  You  will 
never  see  them  except  in  the  zodiac  constellations,  so 
they  need  not  confuse  you.  And  now  I  think  all  of 
us  had  better  go  downstairs  and  get  warm  before  we 
go  to  bed.  Besides,  we  want  to  leave  a  little  to  do 
to-morrow  night,  and  there  are  only  two  constella- 
tions left  now." 

"Only  two?"  cried  the  children  in  disappoint- 
ment. 

"Only  two  that  we  can  see  well,"  assured  Uncle 
Henry. 

"Well,"  said  Peter,  "I  guess  we'd  better  have  the 
Society  adjourn.  I  move  we  adjourn." 

"Second  the  motion,"  said  Paul,  with  true  parlia- 
mentary solemnity. 

"Carried,"  murmured  Betty,  who  was  beginning 
to  get  sleepy  in  spite  of  herself. 


THIRD   WINTER  EVENING 

THE  SKY  CLOUDED  OVER,  BUT  PETER  FOUND  THE 
STAR  PEOPLE  HIDING  IN  THE  ALMANAC — PAUL 
FOUND  HIS  HEAD  WAS  THE  WORLD — AND  THE 
"SOCIETY"  FOUND  OUT  ABOUT  THE  SWASTIKA  AND 
THE  ZODIAC,  AND  HOW  YOU  TELL  WHEN  A  DIPPER  IS 

A  PLOUGH  AND  WHEN  IT'S  A  WAGON 

NEXT  evening  Peter  and  Paul  carried  the  black- 
board to  the  roof  after  supper,  but  soon  returned  in 
disappointment.  The  sky  had  all  clouded  over!  The 
evening's  session  of  the  "Society  of  Star-Gazers" 
was  spoiled.  Its  members  stood  in  a  circle  about 
Uncle  Henry  and  looked  hopefully  at  him.  Never 
yet  had  be  failed  to  make  good  in  an  emergency. 

"Well,  it  can't  be  helped,"  said  Uncle  Henry 
cheerfully.  "We'll  just  have  to  bring  Starland  down 
here  into  our  playroom  for  this  evening.  Suppose 
you  get  me — let's  see — about  a  dozen  sheets  of  paper 
from  a  big  scratch  pad,  some  of  Betty's  colored 
crayons — they  had  better  be  the  dark-colored  ones — 
and  a  good-sized  sheet  of  stiff  cardboard  or  Bristol 
board.  Yes,  and  some  pins  and  an  Almanac.  Betty '11 
get  the  colored  pencils,  Paul  the  cardboard,  and 
Peter  the  sheets  of  paper  and  the  pins.  I'll  borrow 
the  Almanac  from  Katy.  She  has  one  in  the 
kitchen." 

The  children  scattered  for  the  materials  and  Uncle 

78 


THIRD    WINTER   EVENING  79 

Henry  took  the  shade  off  the  electric  lamp  that  stood 
on  the  playroom  table. 

When  everybody  was  back  in  the  playroom  with 
the  things  needed  the  Society  gathered  around 
Uncle  Henry  and  asked, 

"Where  do  we  go  from  here,  Uncle  Hen?" 

"Out  into  Starland,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  spreading 
out  his  arms  wide.  "This  room  is  the  universe.  This 
lamp  with  the  shade  off  is  the  sun.  Imagine  that  the 
pictures  on  the  walls  are  groups  of  stars,  the  con- 
stellations, the  star-people  we  have  been  finding  in 
the  sky  right  along.  Imagine  that  there  are  pictures 
on  the  ceiling,  too,  and  on  the  floor.  Lots  of  them,  all 
over  the  six  sides  of  this  square  room. 

"Now  Paul,  you  have  a  nice  round  head  and  have 
just  had  a  hair-cut.  Your  head  can  be  the  earth. 
Just  walk  around  the  table  once  or  twice  until  we 
get  used  to  thinking  about  your  head  as  the  world. 
It  seems  rather  small  at  first.  That's  right.  Now 
you're  going  around  the  sun  the  way  the  earth  does, 
from  right  to  left,  just  opposite  to  the  way  the  clock- 
hands  go.  You  go  once  around  the  sun  every  year." 

"The  earth  of  course  spins  on  its  axis,  too,  just 
like  a  top,  while  it  is  circling  round  the  sun.  It  turns 
round  completely  every  twenty-four  hours,  from 
West  to  East.  Paul,  see  if  you  can  spin  like  a  top 
while  you  are  going  round  the  lamp.  Spin  from  right 
to  left,  just  opposite  to  the  way  the  clock-hands  go." 

Paul  did  his  best  to  spin  and  walk  at  the  same 
time,  and  Uncle  Henry  showed  Peter  and  Betty  that 
the  side  of  Paul's  head  that  was  toward  the  lamp  was 


80 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


always  bright,  while  the  other  side  was  always  in 
shadow.  As  Paul  turned  on  his  axis  from  right  to 
left  his  face  became  lighted,  then  the  right  side  of  his 
head,  then  its  back,  then  the  left  side,  and  so  on, 
round  and  round. 

Part  of  the  time  Paul  was  facing  a  picture  on  one 
wall  and  the  next  minute  his  back  was  toward  that 
picture  and  he  was  looking  at  another  picture  on  the 
opposite  wall,  across  the  lamp. 

These  two  drawings  show  how  Paul  faced  the  two 
pictures  one  after  the  other. 


Night  on  Pauls  Face 


Day  on  Paul's  Face* 


"Now  tell  me,"  commanded  Uncle  Henry,  "which 
picture  you  see  the  plainest — is  it  the  one  you  see 
when  your  back  is  to  the  lamp — or  is  it  the  one  you 
see  when  you  face  the  lamp,  and  look  across  it  toward 
the  picture  on  the  wall  beyond?" 

"The  lamp  is  so  bright  without  a  shade  that  it 
blinds  me  when  I  try  to  see  the  picture  beyond  it," 
said  Paul. 

"Oh,  I  see!  I  see!"  said  Betty,  beginning  to  hop 
up  and  down.  "Can  I  tell,  Uncle  Henry?" 


THIRD   WINTER  EVENING  81 

"  Surely,"  laughed  Uncle  Henry,  "  what  do  you 
see?  " 

"When  Paul  faces  the  picture  with  his  back  to  the 
lamp,"  said  Betty,  "it's  night  on  his  face,  and  day 
on  the  back  of  his  head!  Is  that  right?" 

"Yes,  go  on,"  encouraged  Uncle  Henry. 

"And  so  he  can  see  that  picture  better,  'cause  the 
lamplight  isn't  in  his  eyes.  But  when  he  faces  the 
lamp  and  looks  across  it,  then  it's  day  in  his  face, 
and  night  on  the  back  of  his  head,  and  he  can't  see 
the  picture  beyond  the  lamp  very  well,  'cause  the 
sun-lamp  shines  in  his  eyes." 

"So  that's  why  we  can  only  see  the  stars  at  night!" 
said  Peter. 

"Yes,  that's  why  the  moon  and  the  stars  come  out 
only  when  it  gets  dark,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "You 
see  the  earth  turns  round  and  carries  us  to  its  dark 
side,  the  side  that  is  away  from  the  sun.  We  say 
'The  sun  has  set.'  Then  when  the  sun  glare  is 
gone  from  our  eyes  we  can  see  the  sky-pictures,  just 
as  Paul  sees  one  picture  better  with  his  back  to  the 
lamp  than  he  does  the  other  when  he  has  to  look 
through  the  lamp-light  toward  it." 

"And  the  stars  are  in  the  sky  all  day  long,  whether 
we  see  them  or  not?"  asked  Paul. 

"Certainly,"  said  Uncle  Henry.  "If  you  could 
look  up  at  the  sky  from  the  bottom  of  a  very  deep 
well,  or  a  tall  chimney,  so  that  the  sun-light  was 
kept  out  of  your  eyes,  you  could  see  the  stars  shining 
in  the  daytime.  There  is  a  long  deep  tunnel  in  the 
great  pyramid  of  Egypt  that  goes  up  and  out  from 


82  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

the  centre  of  its  base  toward  its  north  side  at  just  the 
right  angle  so  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  could 
always  see  the  pole  star  through  it — no  matter 
whether  it  was  night  or  daytime.  You  see  the 
pole  star  never  rises  or  sets,  because  it  is  always 
right  over  the  end  of  the  axis  that  the  earth 
spins  on." 

This  picture  shows  how  the  tunnel  in  the  great 
pyramid  always  pointed  to  the  north  star  because 
the  tunnel  is  always  parallel  to  the  axis  the  earth 
spins  on. 


When  the  pyramid  was  built,  the  star  in  the  tip 
of  the  little  bear's  tail  was  not  the  pole  star,  as  it  is 
now.  At  that  time  the  star  that  was  nearest  the  pole 
was  one  of  those  in  the  dragon.  Since  the  pole  of  the 
earth  goes  round  in  a  complete  circle  among  the 
stars  every  25,000  years,  the  star  in  Draco  will  some 
time  be  the  pole-star  again — in,  say  20,000  more 
years ! 


THIRD   WINTER   EVENING  83 

Peter  had  picked  up  the  Almanac  that  Uncle 
Henry  had  borrowed  from  Katy  and  suddenly 
cried, 

"Oh,  Uncle  Henry,  the  Almanac  has  a  lot  of  the 
Star  People  in  it.  It  calls  them  'The  Signs  of  the 
Zodiac.'  What's  the  Zodiac,  Uncle  Hen?" 

"We  are  going  to  find  out  right  away,  Pete,"  said 
Uncle  Henry,  "but  first  we  must  draw  pictures  of  the 
twelve  star  folks  that  are  the  Zodiac  signs.  That 
means  three  drawings  apiece.  Pull  up  your  chairs  to 
the  table  and  we'll  draw  on  the  sheets  of  scratch 
paper  with  Betty's  colored  pencils.  Paul,  you  do  the 
Virgo,  Leo,  and  Cancer  the  Crab;  Peter  will  draw 
Gemini  the  Twins,  Taurus  the  Bull,  and  Aries  the 
Ram;  Betty  will  do  the  Fishes,  called  Pisces  in  Latin, 
Aquarius  the  Water  Carrier,  and  Capricornus  the 
Goat;  while  I  will  draw  Sagittarius  the  Archer, 
Scorpio,  and  Libra  the  Balance.  All  old  friends  of 


ours." 


"We'll  put  the  Almanac  here  in  the  middle  of  the 
table  where  we  can  all  see  it  while  we  copy  the 
'signs,'  one  on  each  sheet  of  paper." 

Everybody  was  very  busy  indeed  for  about  half 
an  hour.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the  twelve  rough 
drawings  were  done  and  pinned  up  at  equal  distances 
apart  around  the  walls  of  the  playroom,  three  on 
each  of  the  four  walls.  They  were  arranged  around 
the  room  in  the  same  order  in  which  Uncle  Henry 
had  assigned  them.  The  room  then  looked  like  this, 
though  of  course  you  see  only  three  walls  in  a  picture. 
You  must  imagine  how  the  fourth  wall  looked. 


84 


THE  STAR  PEOPLE 


"Now  Paul,  suppose  you  walk  around  the  table 
again,  spinning  on  your  own  axis  as  you  go,  and  we'll 
try  to  find  out  what  the  Zodiac  is.  You  notice  that 
the  pictures  are  all  pinned  on  the  walls  at  the  same 
height  from  the  floor,  which  is  just  the  height  of  the 
electric  lamp  bulb,  and  just  the  height  of  Paul's 
head  too,  no  matter  where  he  is  in  his  walk  around 
the  lamp.  The  twelve  constellations,  or  signs  of  the 
Zodiac  are  in  the  real  sky  also  on  the  same  level  with 
the  earth  and  the  sun,  no  matter  where  the  earth  is 
in  its  journey  round  the  sun.  Astronomers  say  it  this 
way :  they  say  that  the  earth  revolves  around  the  sun 
*  in  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic.'  That  simply  means  that, 
if  the  sun  was  in  the  centre  of  an  enormous  horizon- 
tal pane  of  glass,  the  earth  and  all  the  signs  of  the 
Zodiac  would  also  always  be  touching  the  pane  of 
glass,  which  would  then  represent  the  *  plane  of  the 
ecliptic.'  Put  an  1  in  'pane'  and  you  have  'plane." 

"Is  each  sign  for  a  month?"  asked  Peter.    "I  see 
there  .are  twelve  of  them." 


THIRD   WINTER   EVENING 


85 


"That's  correct,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "and  you 
want  to  notice  that  as  Paul  walks  round  the  lamp 
and  looks  across  it  at  the  signs  on  the  wall  beyond 
it,  the  lamp  seems  to  Paul  to  move  from  one  picture 
to  the  next." 

This  picture  is  drawn  as  if  the  ceiling  of  the  room 
was  taken  off  and  you  could  look  down  on  Paul 
walking  around  the  lamp. 


When  it  is  January  first,  Paul,  representing  the 
earth,  is  in  the  position  marked  A,  nearest  to  the 
picture  of  Gemini  behind  him,  while  the  lamp, 
representing  the  sun,  appears  to  him  to  be  entering 
the  sign  of  the  Zodiac  called  Sagittarius,  directly 
opposite  across  the  room.  Later,  on  April  first, 


86 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


after  three  months,  Paul,  or  the  earth,  has  traveled 
a  quarter  of  the  way  around  the  sun,  has  passed 
the  pictures  of  Cancer  and  Leo  on  the  wall  be- 
hind him,  and  stands  nearest  Virgo  in  the  posi- 
tion marked  B.  The  lamp  has  also  seemed  to 
move  through  a  quarter  circle,  has  passed  through 
the  signs  of  Capricornus  and  Aquarius,  and  appears 
to  Paul  to  be  just  entering  the  sign  of  Pisces,  or  the 
Fishes.  In  the  same  way  the  earth  moves  through  a 
sign  of  the  Zodiac  every  month  and  the  sun,  while 
really  motionless,  appears  to  also  travel  through  a 
sign  every  month.  Of  course  we  cannot  see  the  sign 
or  constellation,  where  the  sun  appears  to  be,  at  the 


THIRD   WINTER   EVENING  87 

same  time  we  see  the  sun,  for  his  brightness  makes 
the  stars  invisible,  but  if  we  could  see  the  constella- 
tions by  day,  the  sun  would  appear  to  travel  from 
one  sign  of  the  Zodiac  to  the  next  every  month." 

Here  is  a  clock  of  the  year  which  shows  the  earth 
at  one  end  of  the  hand,  the  sun  in  the  middle,  and 
at  the  other  end  of  the  hand  an  arrow,  which  points 
to  the  sign  of  the  Zodiac  where  the  sun  appears  to  be, 
and  to  the  date  when  it  seems  to  be  there  to  an 
observer  on  the  earth.  Draw  the  hand  with  the 
earth-end  in  several  different  positions  and  you  will 
see  that  the  sun,  if  viewed  from  the  earth,  would 
appear  to  be  in  the  sign  of  the  Zodiac  exactly  oppo- 
site. 

When  the  children  all  understood  the  way  the 
Zodiac  divides  the  yearly  path  of  the  earth  into 
twelve  equal  parts,  Betty  said,  "I  want  to  know  why 
the  geography  globe  at  school  always  looks  just  as 
if  it  was  going  to  tip  over." 

Uncle  Henry  laughed.  "If  you  think  the  geogra- 
phy globe  looks  unsteady  because  its  axis  of  iron  rod 
is  on  a  slant,  what  will  you  think  about  the  earth 
when  I  tell  you  that  it  spins  around  in  just  the  same 
slanting  position,  with  only  an  imaginary  line  for 
axis?" 

"Does  it  really?"  asked  Betty. 

"Yes,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "and  it  spins  so  steadily 
in  that  slanting  position  that  the  north  end  of  its 
imaginary  axis  always  points  toward  the  same  place, 
a  point  very  close  to  the  north  star,  or  Polaris  as  it 
is  called." 


88  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"Polaris  is  named  for  the  North  Pole,  I  suppose," 
said  Peter. 

"That's  right,"  Uncle  Henry  replied.  "Let's  get 
some  scissors  and  we'll  use  our  big  sheet  of  card- 
board to  make  a  cap  for  Paul's  head  that  will  show 
you  just  how  the  slant  of  the  earth's  axis  makes  it 
hotter  in  summer  and  colder  in  winter." 

"Ooh!"  exclaimed  Paul,  "I  always  thought  it  was 
hot  in  summer  because  the  earth  got  nearer  to  the 
sun  then." 

"Lots  of  people  think  that,  too,"  said  Uncle  Henry, 
"but  it  isn't  so.  The  earth  is  really  farther  from  the 


sun  in  summer." 


Betty  ran  for  the  scissors,  and  Uncle  Henry  cut 
out  a  big  circle  from  the  stiff  cardboard.  Then  he 
cut  out  an  opening  in  the  centre  of  it  that  fitted 
Paul's  head  just  as  a  stiff  straw  hat  would  that  was 
a  size  too  big  for  him.  The  circle  of  cardboard 
dropped  down  until  it  rested  on  Paul's  ears  and  on 
the  bridge  of  his  nose.  This  cardboard  brim  repre- 
sented the  "plane  of  the  earth's  equator,"  just  as  the 
pane  of  glass  represented  the  "plane  of  the  eclip- 
tic." Since  the  "plane  of  the  equator"  is  always 
at  right  angles  to  the  slanting  axis  of  the  earth,  the 
"plane  of  the  equator"  is  always  at  a  slant  to  the 
"plane  of  the  ecliptic." 

If  you  will  run  a  long  hat-pin  through  an  orange, 
and  sink  the  orange  exactly  to  its  middle  in  a  glass 
bowl  filled  with  water,  holding  the  hat-pin  at  a  slant, 
you  will  see  that  the  equator  of  the  orange  is  at  a 
slant  with  the  surface  of  the  water.  Half  of  the 


THIRD   WINTER   EVENING 


89 


orange's  equator  curves  up  above  the  water,  while 
half  of  it  curves  down  under  the  water's  surface. 
If  you  fasten  a  cardboard  ring  around  the  orange 
at  the  equator  the  cardboard  will  then  be  at  an 
angle  with  the  surface  of  the  water,  which  represents 
the  "plane  of  the  ecliptic." 

Uncle  Henry  cut  two  long  strips  from  what  was 
left  of  the  cardboard  and  crossed  the  strips  over  the 
top  of  Paul's  head,  fastening  the  four  ends  of  them 
to  the  round  cardboard  brim  close  to  his  head. 

After  this  Uncle  Henry  rolled  a  sheet  of  the  scratch 
paper  round  a  pencil,  put  rubber  bands  tightly 
around  it,  cut  the  end  to  bend  up  and  make  a  foot 
and  pinned  the  foot  to  the  cardboard  strips  at  the 
place  where  they  crossed.  When  Paul  had  it  all  on  he 
looked  very  funny 
with  the  pencil  stick- 
ing straight  up  from 
the  top  of  his  head, 
and  his  eyes  just 
peeping  over  the 
card  board  brim  on 
each  side  of  the 
strip  down  the  mid- 
dle of  his  nose. 

"Now    come    on, 
Mr.     Earth,"     said 
Uncle  Henry,  "It's  time  for  you  to  spin  round  the 
lamp-sun  for  another  year  or  two." 

So  Paul  held  his  head  on  a  slant  and  kept  it  so  that 
the  pencil  always  pointed  in  the  same  direction  as 


90 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


he  went  round  the  lamp.  These  four  little  pictures 
show  how  he  looked  at  the  four  sides  of  the  sun  where 
the  earth  is  in  Winter,  Spring,  Summer,  and  Autumn. 


Autumn 


Summer 


"Now,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "you  see  that  if  we 
make  a  black  dot  on  one  of  the  cardboard  strips 
about  halfway  between  the  cardboard  brim,  or  the 
earth's  equator,  and  the  pencil,  or  the  North  Pole,  it 
will  be  about  as  far  north  as  we  are  in  the  United 
States.  And  when  Paul  is  in  his  Summer  position, 
with  the  pencil  slanting  toward  the  'sun,'  you  see 
that  the  sun's  rays  beat  down  much  straighter  on  the 
black  dot  than  they  do  when  he  is  on  the  other  side 
of  the  lamp,  with  the  pole  slanting  away  from  the 
'sun.'  That  is  why  the  Winter  sun  appears  to  be 
lower  in  the  sky  at  noon  than  the  Summer  sun,  and 
also  why  the  Summer  sun  shines  hotter  on  the  earth 
than  it  does  in  Winter.  Notice,  too,  that  the  rays 
from  the  lamp  light  up  Paul's  head  for  quite  a  little 


THIRD   WINTER  EVENING  91 

way  beyond  the  foot  of  the  'pole'  when  it  slants 
toward  the  'sun,'  while  when  it  slants  away  from  the 
'sun'  the  rays  fail  to  reach  the  'pole'  at  all.  This 
means  that  in  summer  the  sun  shines  a  longer  time 
upon  the  part  of  the  earth  that  slants  toward  it.  If 
you  could  look  down  from  the  ceiling  at  Paul's  head 
in  his  Summer  position  and  in  his  Winter  one  you 
would  see  why." 

Uncle  Henry  quickly  drew  these  two  pictures  of 
the  top  of  a  globe  to  show  the  children  why  the  days 
are  long  in  Summer  and  short  in  Winter  at  any  point 
in  the  United  States. 


SUN 


A 

The  Winter  Day  The  Summer  Day 

lasts  while  the  black  dot  on  the  lasts  while  the  black  dot  on  the 

earth   travels  from  A  to  B—  earth  travels  from  C  to  D — 

less  than  half-way  round.  more  than  half-way  round. 

"It's  just  like  the  hot  water  bottle  mother  kept  in 
my  bed  that  time  I  had  a  chill  after  swimming," 
said  Paul.  "The  hotter  it  was  before  she  put  it  in 
the  bed  the  slower  it  cooled  off." 

"That's  the  idea,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "the  longer 
the  sun  shines  on  any  place  on  the  earth  the  hotter 


92  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

it  gets,  and  when  the  nights  are  as  short  as  they  are 
in  Summer  the  place  hasn't  long  to  cool  off  before 
it  is  round  in  the  sun's  hot  rays  again.  Now  do  you 
see  why  Summer  is  hotter  than  Winter?" 

The  children  did. 

"There's  one  thing  I  don't  understand,  though," 
said  Peter.  "Why  are  there  different  stars  in  the 
sky  in  Winter  than  there  are  in  Summer?" 

"That's  easy  to  answer,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 
"Look  at  Paul  again — first  when  it's  *  night'  on  his 
face  on  the  'Summer'  side  of  the  lamp,  and  then 
when  it  is  'night'  on  his  face  on  the  'Winter'  side  of 
the  lamp. 

"At  'night'  in  Summer  Paul  looks  at  the  pictures 
on  one  end  of  the  room.  The  cardboard  brim,  or 
'plane  of  the  equator,'  is  slanted  up,  above  the 
'plane  of  the  ecliptic." 

This  picture  shows  how  Paul  looked. 


THIRD  WINTER  EVENING  93 

"But  in  Winter,  at  'night,'  Paul  looks  at  quite 
different  pictures,  at  the  other  end  of  the  room.  The 
cardboard  brim  is  slanted  down,  below  the  level  of 
the  *  plane  of  the  ecliptic.'  This  is  why  the  path  of 
the  Winter  Signs  crosses  the  sky  higher  up  than 
the  path  of  the  Summer  Signs.  In  both  Winter  and 
Summer  you  must  imagine  the  cardboard  brim  to 
be  as  transparent  as  glass,  for  the  'plane  of  the 
equator'  is  in  reality  only  imaginary." 

This  next  picture  shows  how  Paul  looked  at  the 
constellations  at  "  night  "  in  Winter. 

"Of  course  the  north  star  and  the  stars  for  a 
considerable  distance  round  the  pole  never  set,  and 
can  be  seen  all  night  at  any  time  of  the  year.  It  is 
only  the  ones  that  rise  and  set  that  go  and  come  from 
our  sight  with  the  seasons.  In  reality  they  never 
leave  us,  for  if  it  wasn't  for  the  sunlight  getting  in 
our  eyes  by  day,  we  could  see  the  Summer  night 
star-pictures  in  the  Winter  daytime,  and  the  Winter 
night  star  people  in  the  Summer  daytime.  We  are 
just  looking  at  opposite  ends  of  our  big  room  in  the 
universe  on  Winter  nights  and  Summer  nights,  that's 
all,"  said  Uncle  Henry. 

Uncle  Henry  took  some  folded  papers  from  his 
pocket  and  spread  them  out  on  the  table. 

"Here  are  four  maps  of  the  sky,"  he  said,  "which 
show  the  way  it  looks  at  different  seasons  at  9  o'clock 
in  the  evening — on  January  1st,  April  1st,  July  1st, 
and  October  1st.  You  will  see  that  the  groups  of 
stars  around  the  pole  are  always  in  view,  while  the 
rest  of  the  star  people  change  with  the  seasons,  but 


THE   STAR  PEOPLE 


THIRD   WINTER   EVENING 


95 


even  the  groups  around  the  pole  change  their  posi- 
tions with  the  seasons. 

"You  have  all  seen  the  Swastika.  It  has  been 
known  and  used  as  an  ornament  for  hundreds  of  years, 
all  over  the  world — by  the  American  Indians,  the 
Chinese,  the  East  Indians,  and  many  others.  I'll  show 
you  where  I  think  all  these  widely  separated  people  got 
the  Swastika,  and  how  it  stands  for  the  four  seasons." 

Uncle  Henry  drew  four  little  pictures  showing 
the  four  positions  in  which  the  big  dipper  stands  in 
the  four  different  seasons,  with  its  "pointer  stars'* 
always  indicating  the  pole  star. 


At  the  right  of  the  pole 
star  in  Winter. 


Above   the  pole  star   in 
Spring. 


At  the  left  of  the  pole 
star  in  Summer. 


Below  the  pole  star  in 
Autumn. 


96 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


Then  he  drew  all  four  positions  on  one  sheet  of 
paper,  like  this: 


And  when  heavy  lines  were  drawn  along  the 
handles  of  the  dippers  and  across  the  pole  star  from 
bowl  to  bowl  the  Swastika  suddenly  appeared  like 
this: 


The  Society  of  Star-Gazers  was  very  enthusiastic 
about  the  origin  of  the  Swastika,  and  found  the 
dipper  in  its  different  positions  on  all  of  the  four  maps 
that  Uncle  Henry  had  put  on  the  table. 

You  can  see  the  position  of  the  dipper  and  all  the 
other  stars  at  January  1st,  April  1st,  July  1st,  and 
December  1st,  at  9  o'clock  in  the  evening,  by  looking 
at  the  four  maps  inside  the  covers  of  this  book. 


THIRD   WINTER   EVENING  97 

After  the  children  had  looked  at  all  the  four 
maps  as  long  as  they  wanted  to,  Uncle  Henry 
suddenly  remembered  to  look  at  his  watch  and 
exclaimed, 

"My  goodness!  I  guess  it's  about  time  the 
Society  adjourned  for  to-night.  Ten  o'clock!  I'll 
get  scolded  for  keeping  you  up  so  late." 

"I  want  to  ask  just  one  thing  more,"  pleaded 
Betty. 

"All  right,  what  is  it?"  said  Uncle  Henry. 

"Who  found  all  the  sky  people?" 

"Well,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "now  that's  a  long 
story.  They  were  all  found  and  named  so  long  ago 
that  nobody  knows  who  did  it.  The  inventors  of  the 
star  people  naturally  thought  they  saw  pictures  in 
the  sky  of  the  things  they  were  familar  with  in 
everyday  life — the  bear,  the  bull,  the  serpent,  the 
archer,  and  so  on.  If  they  had  had  any  steam 
engines  then  somebody  would  have  drawn  lines  from 
star  to  star  until  they  had  a  picture  of  one  in  the  sky. 
In  England  the  Great  Bear  or  Dipper  is  usually 
called  the  'Plough'  and  you  can  see  why 


38  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

"It  is  also  called  *  Charles'  Wain'  or  wagon. 


"We  only  know  that  the  constellations  are  very, 
very  old,  and  that  an  ancient  people  living  in  the 
valley  of  the  Euphrates  river  probably  named  most 
of  them.  The  Babylonian  Tablets,  the  oldest  records 
known,  show  that  the  Zodiac  constellations  were 
known  over  3000  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ, 
which  is  now  nearly  5000  years  ago." 

"Can't  we  have  just  one  more  poem  before  we  go 
to  bed?  "said  Paul. 

"Yes,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "but  not  one  of  mine. 
I'll  give  you  a  little  bit  of  a  long  poem  that  was 
written  by  a  man  named  Aratos  about  280  years 
before  the  wise  men  followed  the  star  that  told  them 
where  to  find  the  new-born  Christ.  It  has  been 
running  through  my  mind  all  the  evening.  This  is  it : 

"And  all  the  signs  through  which  Night  whirls  her  car, 
From  belted  Orion  back  to  Orion  and  his  dauntless  Hound, 
And  all  Poseidon's,  all  high  Zeus' 's  stars, 
Bear  on  their  beams  true  messages  to  man." 


FOURTH  WINTER  EVENING 

IN  WHICH  THE  "SOCIETY"  MEETS  THE  LAST  OF  THE 

STAR  PEOPLE  AND  THE  BEGINNING  OF  ASTRONOMY 

AND  BETTY  PROPOSES  A  "NOTE*'  OF  THANKS 

THE  Society  of  Star-Gazers  assembled  upon  the 
roof  the  next  night  with  an  eagerness  that  was 
tempered  a  little  by  regret  that  it  was  the  last. 

Uncle  Henry  saw  this,  and  before  starting  to  find 
the  evening's  constellations  with  the  children,  told 
them  a  few  of  the  many  wonderful  things  to  be 
seen  among  the  stars  with  the  aid  of  a  small  tel- 
escope. 

He  reminded  them  of  the  "little  cloud"  in  Androm- 
eda, called  the  Great  Nebula,  and  said  that  there 
were  not  only  many  more  of  these  wonderful  clouds 
of  star  dust,  but  numbers  of  beautiful  double  stars, 
some  of  them  lovely  with  tints  of  red,  green  or 
orange,  and  some  that  can  be  seen  with  an  ordinary 
opera-glass. 

Then  he  told  them  of  the  curious  variable,  or 
"winking"  stars,  which  turn  bright  and  faint 
alternately  on  a  regular  schedule,  so  many  hours 
bright,  and  so  many  hours  faint.  Also  he  described 
the  beauty  of  the  planet  Jupiter,  surrounded  by  its 
four  little  moons,  all  of  which  could  be  seen  with  a 
small  telescope. 

Then  the  children  began  to  feel  more  cheerful, 


100  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

for  they  saw  that  being  introduced  to  the  creatures 
and  people  of  Skyland  was  only  the  beginning  of  the 
study  of  astronomy. 

"So,"  finished  Uncle  Henry,  "we  don't  need  to 
feel  that  there  is  no  more  fun  coming,  for  there  are 
lots  more  faint  constellations  which  are  all  beautiful, 
even  though  not  plain  enough  for  us  to  find  easily 
in  the  beginning.  Besides,  if  you  ever  journey  to  the 
South,  beyond  the  earth's  equator,  you  will  find  a 
whole  new  sky  full  of  marvelous  people,  and  crea- 
tures, and  objects — all  pictured  in  the  flashing 
southern  heavens." 

"Well,"  said  Peter  briskly,  "what  do  we  find 
to-night,  Uncle  Hen?" 

"We'll  begin,"  replied  Uncle  Henry,  "with  a 
person  you  may  have  heard  of — Perseus,  who  killed 
the  terrible  Gorgon  Medusa." 

"Oh,  I  know  him,"  cried  Paul,  "we  read  all 
'bout  him  last  year." 

"Quite  right,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "then  you 
remember  that  when  he  had  killed  Medusa,  and  cut 
off  her  head  with  his  sword,  he  had  to  hold  the  head 
with  the  terrible  face  away  from  him,  because  every- 
body who  looked  at  that  face  was  instantly  turned 
to  stone." 

"Yes,  yes,  we  know!"  chorused  the  Society. 

"Well,  now  we'll  find  Perseus,  his  sword,  and  the 
head  of  Medusa,"  promised  Uncle  Henry.  "All  you 
have  to  do  is  to  extend  the  line  of  Andromeda's  left 
leg  and  prolong  it  from  her  foot,  straight  out  for 
about  her  whole  length.  (30)  There  you  will  find 


FOURTH  WINTER  EVENING      101 

Algenib,  the  brightest  star  in  Perseus.  It  is  right  in  his 
neck,  between  his  shoulders.  From  Algenib  you  can 
trace  a  row  of  stars  downward,  almost  to  the  Pleiades 
in  the  bull's  shoulder.  This  row  of  stars  is  Perseus9 
body  and  legs.  Then  find  two  stars  above  Algenib, 
one  over  the  other,  and  you  have  his  head  and 
helmet. 

"After  that  it  is  easy  to  start  at  Algenib  and  trace 
out  his  right  arm,  with  the  sword.  A  line  drawn 
toward  Perseus  through  the  stars  in  Andromeda's 
head  and  left  hip  points  out  the  star  Algol,  which 
is  the  head  of  Medusa,  held  in  Perseus9  left  hand.  (31) 
Algol  is  a  famous  variable  star,  which  the  ancients 
named  'the  dragon  of  the  slowly  winking  eye." 

The  children  soon  found  all  of  Perseus,  and  all 
took  part  in  drawing  his  skeleton  on. the  blackboard. 
Then  they  watched  Algol  in  the  sky,  and  expected 
to  see  it  wink,  until  Uncle  Henry  told  them  that  the 
wink  is  so  slow  that  it  takes  seven  hours  for  Algol  to 
become  faint  and  bright  again,  and  that  then  two 
and  three-quarter  days  pass  before  Algol  winks  again. 
This  being  the  case  the  Society  decided  not  to  wait, 
and  finished  Perseus  up  so  that  he  looked  this  way : 

Uncle  Henry  added  the  lines  with  arrows  to  show 
how  Algenib  and  Algol  are  found,  with  the  help  of 
Andromeda. 

"After  Perseus  was  finished,  Betty  kept  gazing 
at  the  sky.  She  seemed  fascinated,  and  finally 
asked, 

"Uncle  Henry,  there's  a  perfectly  lovely  star  just 
a  little  way  in  front  of  Perseus,  and  three  little  ones 


102 


THE   STAR   PEOPLE 


FOURTH   WINTER  EVENING  103 

near  it.  If  I  could  name  stars  I  would  call  them  *  the 
hen  and  chickens,'  wouldn't  you?" 

All  the  children  looked,  and  easily  found  the 
beautiful  star.  They  couldn't  have  missed  it,  and 
neither  can  you,  for  it  is  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
in  the  sky  and  there  are  no  others  like  it  nearby. 

"Yes,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  "the  big  star  and  the 
three  little  ones  do  look  like  a  hen  and  her  chickens. 
I  would  call  them  that,  too,  Betty,  but  hundreds  of 
years  ago  somebody  named  the  bright  star  Capella, 
which  means  'the  goat,'  and  called  the  three  little 
stars  'the  kids,'  so  you  see  that  they  are  named 
already." 

"A  kid  is  the  baby  of  a  goat,  isn't  it,  Uncle  Hen?" 
inquired  Peter. 

"Yes,  that's  the  idea,"  said  Uncle  Henry,  and 
went  on,  "Betty  happens  to  have  picked  out  the 
brightest  star  in  the  last  constellation  we  are  going 
to  find.  It  is  called  Auriga,  or  the  Charioteer.  He 
hasn't  his  chariot  with  him." 

"How  do  we  find  Auriga?"  inquired  Paul. 

"He  is  very  plain,  almost  as  plain  as  Orion  him- 
self, "  said  Uncle  Henry.  "Capella  is  at  one  corner 
of  a  five-sided  figure,  called  a  'pentagon.'  (32)  It  is 
also  in  the  left  shoulder  of  Auriga.  Find  the  tip  of 
the  left  horn  of  Taurus,  the  Bull,  and  you  will  have 
another  corner  of  the  pentagon,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  right  foot  of  Auriga.  When  you  have 
those  points  it  is  easy  to  find  the  other  three  corners, 
which  are  the  right  shoulder,  left  foot,  and  the  right 
hand  of  Auriga.  He  holds  his  whip  in  that  hand. 


104  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

Even  though  he  had  to  leave  his  chariot  when  he 
went  into  the  sky,  he  insisted  on  taking  his  whip 
along.  It  comes  in  very  handy,  too,  sometimes, 
when  the  two  lions  up  there  become  fretful  and 
uneasy.  When  you  have  found  Auriga's  shoulder 
stars,  just  draw  two  lines  upward  to  a  star  above  and 
between  them  and  you  finish  the  charioteer's  skele- 
ton. The  star  at  the  point  where  the  lines  cross  is 
in  his  head.  See  him,  everybody?" 

The  children  had  no  trouble  in  putting  in  the 
stars  and  drawing  the  skeleton.  Neither  will  you, 
for  Auriga  is  very  conspicuous,  and  almost  straight 
overhead  in  the  evening  about  Christmas  time. 

This  is  the  way  Auriga  looked  on  the  blackboard : 

When  the  children  had  finished  looking  at  Auriga, 
and  Capella  the  Goat  and  her  three  babies,  Betty 
drew  herself  up  very  straight  and  said,  trying  to 
look  very  dignified, 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  move  that  The  Society  of  Star- 
Gazers  give  Uncle  Henry  a  note  of  thanks  for  giving 
us  such  an  instructive,  and — and — oh,  we've  liked 
your  Christmas  present  an  awful  lot,  Uncle  Henry!" 

Peter  was  going  to  say  that  it  was  a  vote  of  thanks 
that  people  got  from  societies,  but  Betty  was  so 
earnest  and  dignified  that  he  didn't  really  want  to 
take  her  down  just  then,  so  he  joined  Paul  in  second- 
ing the  motion  and  was  appointed  by  Betty  as  a 
committee  of  one  to  write  the  "note"  and  deliver 
it  to  Uncle  Henry  later. 

Uncle  Henry  looked  quite  serious,  for  him,  and 
said  that  he  had  made  up  a  little  poem  that  they 


FOURTH  WINTER  EVENING     105 


106  THE   STAR   PEOPLE 

might  like  to  hear  while  standing  under  the  Christ- 
mas stars. 

The  Society  voted  unanimously  in  the  affirmative, 
so  Uncle  Henry  recited, 

"There  was  once  a  star  of  old, 
Wonders  to  three  wise  men  told. 

Where  it  led,  there  followed  they — 
Stars  had  taught  them  how  to  pray, 
How  to  know  the  Truth  from  lies — 
God  had  taught  them  through  His  skies. 

Where  the  star  led,  followed  they, 
Found  the  Christ-child,  laid  in  hay — 
To  His  mother,  in  the  stable, 
Brought  Him  gifts  that  they  were  able. 

Stars  lead  us  to  Christmas  Truth — 
Let  us  look,  with  eyes  of  youth!" 

Then,  in  a  moment  more,  Uncle  Henry  and  the 
children  were  gone,  and  the  sleepless,  faithful  stars 
were  alone,  brooding  lovingly  over  their  tiny  baby 
brother,  which  we  call  the  great  world. 


The  author  desires  to  express  his  indebtedness  to  the  follow- 
ing books,  which  have  given  him  many  hours  of  enlightening 
pleasure  while  riding  the  star-gazing  hobby: 

A  Field  Book  of  the  Stars  Olcott 

Star  Lore  of  all  Ages  Olcott 

The  Heavens  and  Their  Story  Mrs.  Maunder 

Astronomy  Jacoby 

Astronomy  from  a  Dipper  Clarke 

New  Astronomy  Todd 

Astronomy  Lockyer 

He  also  wishes  to  add  his  appreciation  of  the  monthly  pleasure 
given  by  "The  Evening  Sky  Map,"  published  by  Leon  Barritt. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


AST 


%tf\]t     ~  *~*~ 

m**^*" — U      I  "I?/ 


btr 


DNOMY   LIBRARY 


LD  21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 


M298739 


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AUTUMN 


These  Star  People  You  Will  See  on  Oct.  1st,  at  9  o'clock  in  the  Evenin 


